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Katie Couric Negotiating ABC News Exit (THR / The Live Feed)
Less than three years after joining ABC in a lucrative and wide-ranging deal that included a daytime talk show and a role at ABC News, Katie Couric is negotiating an exit package, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The move comes as Couric is close to finalizing an extensive deal with Internet giant Yahoo!, according to multiple sources. TVNewser “Katie is an incredible journalist and this was an opportunity that she couldn’t pass up,” an ABC newser in the know tells TVNewser. “Thanks to the powerful association between ABC News and Yahoo! we know that Katie will continue to work closely with us and welcome her on our air anytime.” AllThingsD The deal is set to be announced on Monday, said multiple sources at the company, which could designate Couric as “global news anchor” of the Silicon Valley Internet giant. Capital New York The negotiations over whether she will continue her daytime talk show, Katie, for the network are still ongoing, and the Yahoo! deal does not prevent her from keeping it. NYT The Katie program was among the highest-rated of the new syndicated talk shows over the last two years, but like most recent rating results, the numbers were considerably lower than syndicated shows scored in the past. Variety Couric has always been admirably aggressive about experimenting with online video and social media, so this is no neophyte putting a toe in new waters. But the problem is she is still a fixture of the old media world. Regardless of how willing she is to shed her skin and embrace new ways, the world still mostly sees her in the over-familiar constructs of “anchor” and “talkshow host.”
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