Katie Couric extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Katie Couric
Katie Couric in 2007
Born	Katherine Anne Couric January 7, 1957 (1957-01-07) (age 52) Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Education	University of Virginia
Occupation	Television journalist
Spouse(s)	Jay Monahan (1989-1998)
Children	Elinor Tully "Ellie" Monahan Caroline Couric Monahan
Salary	$15 million
Notable credit(s)	The Today Show Dateline NBC CBS Evening News 60 Minutes

Katherine Anne Couric (born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist who became well-known as co-host of NBC's Today. In 2006, she made a highly publicized move from NBC to CBS, and on September 5, 2006 she became the first solo female anchor of the weekday evening news on one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks. She currently serves as the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News, host of CBSNews.com's weekly chat show @katiecouric and part-time contributor to 60 Minutes as well as anchor for prime time news specials for CBS News.

Contents 1 Life and career 1.1 Television career 1.2 Today (1991–2006) 1.3 CBS Evening News (2006–present) 1.4 @katiecouric (2009–present) 1.5 Public image 1.6 Other work 1.7 Personal life 2 Controversies 2.1 Katie Couric's Notebook controversies 3 References 4 External links

Life and career

Couric was born in Arlington, Virginia, the daughter of Elinor Tullie (née Hene), a homemaker and part-time writer, and John Martin Couric Jr., a public relations executive and news editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the United Press in Washington, D.C. Couric was raised Presbyterian,¹ though her mother was Jewish.² Couric's maternal grandparents, Born Hene and Clara L. Froshin, were the children of Jewish immigrants from Germany.³ In a report for Today, she traced her paternal ancestry back to a French orphan who immigrated to the U.S. in the nineteenth century and became a broker in the cotton business.

Couric attended Arlington, Virginia public schools: Jamestown Elementary, Williamsburg Junior High, and Yorktown High School⁴ and was a cheerleader.⁵ As a high school student, she was an intern at Washington, DC all-news radio station WAVA. She enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1975, majored in English and History,⁴ and was a Delta Delta Delta sorority sister. Couric served in several positions at UVA's award-winning daily newspaper, The Cavalier Daily. During her third year at UVA, Couric was chosen to live as Head Resident of The Lawn, the heart of Thomas Jefferson's academical village. She graduated in 1979 with a degree in American Studies.^{citation needed}

Television career

Couric's ABC News bureau in Washington, D.C., later joining CNN as an assignment editor. Between 1984 and 1986, she worked as a general-assignment reporter for WTVJ in Miami, Florida. During the following two years, she reported for WRC-TV, an NBC station in Washington, D.C., work which earned her an Associated Press award and an Emmy. Couric joined NBC News in 1989 as Deputy Pentagon Correspondent. From 1989 to 1991, Couric was an anchor substitute and filled in for Bryant Gumbel as host of Today, Jane Pauley, and Deborah Norville as co-anchor of Today, Garrick Utley, Mary Alice Williams, and Maria Shriver as co-host of Sunday Today, John Palmer, Norville, and Faith Daniels as anchor of the former NBC News program NBC News at Sunrise. She also subbed for Daniels, Norville, and John Palmer as the news anchor on Today'.

Today (1991–2006)

In 1990, Couric joined Today as national political correspondent, becoming a substitute co-host in February 1991 when Norville had a baby. Norville did not return and Couric became permanent co-anchor on Friday, April 5, 1991. In 1992, she became co-anchor of "NBC Now" – an evening time weekly TV newsmagazine with Tom Brokaw – which was later canceled and folded into part of Dateline NBC, where her reports appeared regularly and she was named contributing anchor. She remained at Today and NBC News until May 31, 2006, when she announced that she would be going to CBS to anchor the CBS Evening News, becoming the first solo female anchor of the "big three" weekday nightly news broadcasts.

Katie Couric filled in for Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News. Couric has also filled in for Maria Shriver on the Sunday Edition of NBC Nightly News from 1989 to 1992, and also for John Palmer on the Saturday Edition of NBC Nightly News in 1989.

Couric hosted or worked on a number of news specials, like Everybody's Business: America's Children in 1995. Similar entertainment specials were Legend to Legend Night: A Celebrity Cavalcade in 1993, and Harry Potter: Behind the Magic in 2001. Couric has also co-hosted the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. She has broadcast with Bob Costas, beginning with the 2000 Summer Olympics. She did not co-host the 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in Turin, Italy because of a scheduling conflict with a live taping of Today. Brian Williams co-hosted with Bob Costas instead.

Couric has interviewed many international political figures and celebrities during her career, including Presidents Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and First Lady Barbara Bush. John F. Kennedy Jr. gave Couric his first and last interviews. Couric has won multiple television reporting awards through her career, including the prestigious Peabody Award for her series Confronting Colon Cancer. Couric has also interviewed former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Senator Hillary Clinton (her first television interview), Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, and Laura Bush.

On May 28, 2008, Couric made a return visit to Today since leaving almost two years to the very day back on May 31, 2006. She made this appearance alongside her evening counterparts, NBC Nightly News’ Brian Williams & ABC World News’ Charles Gibson, to promote an organization called Stand Up to Cancer and raise cancer awareness on all three major television networks; ABC, CBS & NBC. Couric, Gibson and Williams made appearances together on all three major network morning shows, first on CBS’s Early Show, then on NBC’s Today and finally on ABC’s Good Morning America.

CBS Evening News (2006–present)

This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section if you can. (April 2009)

Couric announced on April 5, 2006 that she would be leaving the Today Show.⁶ CBS officially confirmed later the same day that Couric would become the new anchor and managing editor of CBS Evening News with her first broadcast set for September 5, 2006. Couric would also contribute to 60 Minutes and anchor prime time news specials for CBS. Couric would remain the highest-paid news anchor at $15 million per year.⁷

Many criticized the move by CBS to promote Couric to the broadcast chair, arguing that she lacked the experience in hard journalism and credentials necessary to be a sole anchor of the CBS Evening News.⁸ CBS News had a video montage presentation with Bob Schieffer talking about Couric's experience as a Washington beat reporter back in the early years of her career.⁹

On July 20, 2006, Access Hollywood reported that Couric intended to avoid certain anchoring situations that previous anchors have taken on. When asked about traveling to the Middle East, Couric was quoted as stating, "I think the situation there is so dangerous, and as a single parent with two children, that's something I won't be doing". Access Hollywood later corrected this report,¹⁰ saying it was misleading and was based on a statement made by Couric after CBS correspondent Kimberly Dozier was injured in Iraq in May while Couric was still co-hosting at Today.

Couric made her first broadcast as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on September 5, 2006. The program featured a new set, new graphics, and a new theme (composed by prolific movie score composer James Horner,¹¹ and featuring a voice over from Walter Cronkite). It was the first evening newscast to be simulcast live on the Internet and local radio stations. Critics gave mixed reactions about the first broadcast, which drew around 13.6 million viewers, the highest ratings for the CBS Evening News since February 1998 and double the usual number of viewers.¹² On September 19, 2006 the program placed first in weekly ratings. However, Couric's second week as anchor pulled in a close margin between rival NBC Nightly News with CBS' 7.9 million viewers compared to NBC's 7.3 million viewers for the week of September 11 – September 15, 2006. (Couric fell to third place on September 11, 2006 for that particular day with NBC, and ABC respectively taking first and second place, yet CBS remained at first place for the remainder of week.)¹³ By October 6, Couric had slipped to third place for the second week in a row, trailing ABC News by more than a million viewers.¹⁴ The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric continually finishes last in all major markets.¹⁵ Nonetheless, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric won the 2008 Edward R. Murrow Award for best newscast.

On March 29, 2009, Couric was awarded with the Emmy Governor’s Award for her broadcasting career.

CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric will be honored at the Fordham University Club's Annual Dinner Thursday. Couric will receive the D.C.-based alumni club's Brien McMahon Award for Public Service, given to a person whose work and service reflects the ideals of the Bronx university. Couric is being honored for her work with the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance to fund new medical research in the disease and to promote early detection. The award is named after the late Connecticut senator and 1924 Fordham graduate.¹⁶

Currently, Couric is the only solo female news anchor in the United States. However, on January 1, 2010, Diane Sawyer will join Couric as the second female evening news anchors, as she takes over for Charles Gibson, who's retiring as anchor of World News with Charles Gibson.¹⁷

@katiecouric (2009–present)

Couric will begin hosting a weekly, one-hour interview program on CBSNews.com.¹⁸

Her first guest is the popular and controversial Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck. Interviews with former Vice President Al Gore and the actor Hugh Jackman are to follow.

Public image

Couric has been called "America's Sweetheart" largely due to her ratings performance on The Today Show.¹⁹ Couric's choice of short skirts while hosting the Today Show has led to her legs being one of the most widely identified aspects of her on-screen persona as well as the subject of many commentaries and tabloid web sites.²⁰ On May 12, 2003, Couric guest hosted The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and garnered 45 percent more viewers than on normal nights. CNN and the New York Daily News noted that instead of using Jay Leno's regular solid desk, "workers cut away the front of her desk to expose her legs while she interviewed American Idol judge Simon Cowell and Austin Powers star Mike Myers".

Other work

In a media crossover to animated film, she was the voice of news-reporter "Katie Current" in the U.S. version of the film Shark Tale. She also made a cameo appearance as a prison guard at Georgia State Prison in Austin Powers in Goldmember. She guest-starred as herself on the CBS sitcom Murphy Brown in 1992 and in the NBC sitcom Will & Grace in late 2002. On May 12, 2003, she traded places for a day with Tonight Show host Jay Leno. Couric also co-hosted NBC's live coverage of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade from 1991 until 2005. Katie Couric delivered the graduation speech at Princeton University on June 1, 2009.²¹ She also works with Carmen Marc Valvo to help promote the deadliness, yet preventability, of colorectal cancer.

Personal life

Couric married Jay Monahan in 1989. Couric had her first daughter, Elinor Tully "Ellie" Monahan, on July 23, 1991; her second daughter, Caroline "Carrie" Couric Monahan, was born on January 5, 1996. Jay Monahan died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 42; as a result, Couric is a prominent spokeswoman for colon cancer awareness. She underwent a colonoscopy on-air in March 2000, and, according to a study²² published by Archives of Internal Medicine (July 14, 2003), inspired many others to get checked as well:

Katie Couric's televised colon cancer awareness campaign was temporarily associated with an increase in colonoscopy use in 2 different data sets. This illustrates the possibility that a well-known individual can draw attention and support to worthwhile causes.

She also was very active in the National Hockey League's Hockey Fights Cancer campaign, appearing in some public service announcements and doing voice-overs for several others. Couric is currently a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for the United States.

On October 7, 2005, Couric broadcast her own mammogram on the Today show, in the hopes of recreating the "Couric Effect" around the issue of breast cancer. October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.²³

Her sister Emily Couric, a Virginia Democratic state senator, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 54 on October 18, 2001. Couric gave a eulogy at the funeral. She pointed out that it irritated Emily when people asked her if she was Katie Couric's sister. She told the mourners "I just want you to know I will always be proud to say 'I am Emily Couric's sister'." Couric has two other siblings, Clara Couric Bachelor and John M. Couric Jr.

Couric was the honored guest at the 2004 Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation fall gala.²⁴

As the Guest of Honor for the inaugural American Cancer Society Discovery Ball, Ms. Couric was recognized for her leadership in increasing cancer awareness and screening. ²⁵

In 2007, Couric began dating 33-year-old entrepreneur (and triathlon competitor) Brooks Perlin.²⁶

Controversies

Katie Couric's Notebook controversies

In April 2007, one of "Katie Couric's Notebook" columns on the CBS News website, a piece about the declining use of libraries, was shown to bear striking resemblances to an article by Wall Street Journal author Jeffrey Zaslow, "Of the Places You'll Go, Is the Library Still One of Them?". In the ensuing controversy, it was revealed that Couric does not generally write these columns, although they often include first-person recounting of supposed events. On April 12, 2007, CBS admitted that her most recent column was indeed plagiarized from a Zaslow article without her knowledge, and that the unidentified producer who provided the material had been fired. Couric continues to maintain that she wrote the article. The article has since been removed.^{citation needed}

The same month, in a "Katie Couric's Notebook" titled "Is America ready for a President who grew up praying in a mosque?", Couric's video cited a Los Angeles Times article which reported that according to childhood acquaintance Zulfan Adi, then-U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama had "prayed in the mosque."^{citation needed} The video was later taken down from CBS' website and the transcript amended with "In a later Chicago Tribune article, however, the source [Adi] said he was not certain whether they prayed together."^{citation needed27})

References

External links

• Katie Couric's Huffington Post Blog Page
• Katie Couric at FameGame.com

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Katie Couric

• Katie Couric at the Internet Movie Database
• Katie Couric Debuts On CBS
• Katie Couric's CBS News Bio
• Katie Couric on The Colbert Report from March 22, 2007
• Katie Couric on Newsgroper (Satire)
• Katie Couric's graduation speechat GraduationWisdom.com

Links to related articles Media offices Preceded by Deborah Norville Today Co-Anchor April 5, 1991 – May 31, 2006 Succeeded by Meredith Vieira Preceded by Bob Schieffer CBS Evening News anchor September 5, 2006–present Succeeded by Incumbent v • d • e Anchors of The CBS Evening News Douglas Edwards • Walter Cronkite • Dan Rather • Connie Chung • Bob Schieffer • Katie Couric Weekend anchors: Roger Mudd • Morton Dean • Paula Zahn • John Roberts • Deborah Norville • Giselle Fernández • Mika Brzezinski • Thalia Assuras • Russ Mitchell • Jeff Glor Substitute anchors: Russ Mitchell • Tracy Smith • Harry Smith • Charles Osgood • Maurice DuBois • Sharyn Alfonsi • Maggie Rodriguez • Jeff Glor v • d • e 60 Minutes correspondents Current Anderson Cooper · Katie Couric · Steve Kroft · Lara Logan · Scott Pelley · Andy Rooney · Morley Safer · Bob Simon · Lesley Stahl · Mike Wallace Former Christiane Amanpour · Ed Bradley · Dan Rather · Harry Reasoner · Charlie Rose · Diane Sawyer · Meredith Vieira