Early life

Couric was born in Arlington, Virginia to Elinor Hene, a homemaker, and John Martin Couric Jr., a journalist at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the United Press in Washington, D.C. Couric's father was Episcopalian and her mother was Jewish;[1] her maternal grandparents, Berthold B. Hene and Clara L. Froshin, were the children of Jewish immigrants from Germany. Her paternal grandfather came from France, more precisely Lorient in Brittany [2] Couric attended Yorktown High School. Couric enrolled in the University of Virginia in 1975, graduating in 1979 with a degree in American Studies. She was a sister in the Delta Delta Delta sorority. At the University, she served in several positions at the school's award-winning daily newspaper, The Cavalier Daily. During her fourth year at the University, Couric was chosen to live as Head Resident of The Lawn, the heart of Thomas Jefferson's academic village ("a thriving neighborhood, a close community of faculty members, families, and students" at UVA).

Career

Couric's reporting career began when she was hired by Stan Hooper as a desk assistant for the 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 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. In 1990, she joined Today as national correspondent, becoming a substitute co-host in February 1991 when Norville had a baby. Norville never returned and Couric became permanent co-anchor on Thursday, April 5, 1991. In 1992, she became co-anchor, of "NBC Now" an evening time weekly TV newsmagazine with Tom Brokaw, which was later cancelled 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 any of the "big three" weekday nightly news broadcasts.

Previously female NBC anchors Jessica Savitch, Jane Pauley, and Connie Chung, ABC News anchor Carole Simpson and Elizabeth Vargas, and CBS News anchor Susan Spencer had worked solo on weekend duty newscasts. Elizabeth Vargas also did solo duty on weekday nightly news broadcasts following the departure of the injured Bob Woodruff.

Couric hosted or worked on a number of news specials. Everybody's Business: America's Children, in 1995 was one example. Katie Couric has filled in for Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News. Couric has also filled in for Garrick Utley on the Sunday Edition of NBC Nightly News from 1989 to 1992, and also for Maria Shriver on the Saturday Edition of NBC Nightly News in 1989.

Similar "specials" of a commercial nature 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 1992 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 Show. Brian Williams co-hosted with Bob Costas instead.

Personality interviews

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 British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Senator Hillary Clinton (her first television interview), Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, and First Lady Laura Bush. She has been criticized from some for a perceived liberal bias based on her interviews with prominent conservative and liberal politicians [3], although more recently she has faced criticism from the left for perceived sympathy to the Bush administration and an unwillingness to include liberal voices on the CBS Evening News. [4]

Media

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. Most foreign versions use a different voice, but she is still credited. 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 NBC sitcom Will & Grace in late 2002. On May 12, 2003, she traded places for a day with Tonight Show host Jay Leno.

"Couric Effect"

Couric's husband, Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer in 1998 at the age of 42; today, she is a prominent spokeswoman for colon cancer awareness. She underwent a colonoscopy on-air in March 2000, and, according to a study 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 an 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.

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. [5]

Likeability

Couric has been admired and criticized for blurring the lines between entertainment and serious reporting. Couric's choice of short skirts while hosting the Today Show has led to her legs (and grin) being one of the most widely identified aspect of her on-screen persona and the subject of many commentaries and Web sites [6]. On May 12, 2003, Couric guest hosted the late night television show The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and gathered 42% more viewers than on normal nights. CNN [7] and the New York Daily News noted that instead of using 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."[8]

Move to CBS

Katie Couric announced on April 5, 2006 (her 15th anniversary as permanent co-host of Today), that she would be leaving the show. “I wanted to tell all of you out there … that after listening to my heart and my gut, two things that have served me pretty well in the past, I will be leaving Today at the end of May." she said. “I really feel as if we’ve become friends through the years.”

Couric appeared emotional at times as she made the announcement on Today. “Sometimes I think change is a good thing,” she said. “Although it may be terrifying to get out of your comfort zone, it’s very exciting to start a new chapter in your life.”[9]

CBS officially confirmed later the same day that Couric would become the new anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric with her first broadcast set for September 5, 2006. Couric would also contribute to 60 Minutes and anchor primetime news specials for CBS. Couric would remain the highest-paid news anchor at $15 million per year. [10]

Many criticized the move by CBS to promote Couric to the broadcast chair. The criticism was centered around Couric's lack of experience in hard journalism and credentials necessary to be a sole anchor of the CBS Evening News, when compared to previous anchors such as Walter Cronkite, who was named in multiple viewer polls "The Most Trusted Man in America." [11] [12] [13] On July 20, 2006, Access Hollywood (an NBC program) reported that Katie intended to avoid certain anchoring situations that previous anchors have taken. When asked about travelling to the Middle East, Katie 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."[14] Access Hollywood later corrected this report [15], 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 Katie Couric was still co-hosting at The Today Show.

Couric made her first broadcast as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on Tuesday, September 5, 2006. The program originated from a brand new set, with brighter colors, new graphics and a new theme. 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. [16] 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's 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). [17] 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. [18]

Personal life

Couric married Jay Monahan in 1989. Couric had her first daughter, Elinor Tully Monahan, on July 23, 1991; her second daughter, Caroline Couric Monahan, was born on January 5, 1996. Jay Monahan died of colon cancer on January 24, 1998.

Emily Couric, a popular Virginia state senator and the sister of Katie, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 54 on October 18, 2001 after a battle with the disease. Couric was quite close to her sister and gave a eulogy at the funeral. She pointed out that it irritated Emily when people asked her if she was Katie Couric's sister. Katie 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 Batchelor and John M. Couric Jr.

Celebrity news, such as People [19], reported that she dated smooth jazz trumpeter Chris Botti, but they reportedly broke up in February 2005.

She was previously and has intermittently been linked with multi-millionaire TV producer Tom Werner, whose home base of California has reportedly proved problematic for the New York-based Couric. Rumors are that she briefly dated in 2006, 43-year-old Jimmy Reyes, one of the Reyes brothers from Reyes Holdings LLC, a Republican billionaire who owns a large distribution company, the Headquarters are located in Rosemont, Illinois, with holdings company Martin Brower LLC. They are a distributor for McDonald's, which is based in Oak Brook, Illinois, and are listed on Crain's as one of Illinois' largest private LLC's. She is currently said to be single according to an interview in the August 2006 edition of Parade magazine.

Trivia

• In a report for The Today Show, she traced her 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 was the honored guest at the 2004 Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation fall gala. [20]
• She appeared in Austin Powers: Goldmember, where she played a prison guard.
• She conducted an impromptu 19 minute and 38 second interview with then President George H. W. Bush.
• Considers her work with colon cancer her "proudest achievement".
• Couric surpassed Bryant Gumbel as the longest serving co-anchor of NBC's The Today Show by 1 month, 26 days, after more than 15 years of service from 1991-2006.
• Couric started on the CBS Evening News the same date that Tom Brokaw, a former co-worker, began his tenure as sole anchor of the NBC Nightly News in 1983.

External links

• Katie Couric Debuts On CBS
• Katie Couric's CBS News Bio
• Katie Couric at the Internet Movie Database
• Katie Couric Fan Site
• Rate Katie Couric's Debut
• Video Highlights of Katies First Broadcast At CBS