Couric To CBS: NBC Offered Vacation Time & Sunday Night Interview Show

Jeff Zucker impressed Alan Berger and Craig Jacobson with “aggressive and creative options” for Katie Couric to stay at NBC, Bill Carter reports. “He first suggested what they came to label ‘the Johnny Carson deal,’ which would have kept Ms. Couric on ‘Today’ for three more years but allowed her to take off every Friday and most of the summer.

Later he came up with a plan for her to have her own prime-time interview-based program on Sunday nights once NBC’s new package of N.F.L. games concluded for the season.”

But he couldn’t offer her the evening news, and that’s what she wanted…

> Also: NY Post: “He really tried to do everything he could to keep her,” said one source involved in Couric’s talks with NBC. “The only thing he couldn’t offer her was ‘NBC Nightly News.'”