Katie Couric Quitting? It's Not About Gender, But Dollars.
So Katie Couric may bail out of the CBS Evening News before her contract expires in 2011. No surprise, even though CBS CEO Les Moonves practically swooned over her recently.
News is all about numbers, and numbers are what advertisers crave. And advertisers mean dollars. And Katie, as TV's highest-paid anchor, is the only one raking in the green stuff in this sad success-story-gone-wrong.
TV's first permanent solo female network evening news anchor is not permanent after all.
There's been bad blood over her move to CBS for a long time. Her predecessor mocked her, and Katie in turn made fun of him.
This wouldn't be worth a mention except that that all of this is played out against the backdrop of television, celebrity, and a multi-million-dollar deal that gambled on the cult of personality...and lost.
Michael Ventre goes into this in great detail in his commentary for MSNBC. I couldn't have said it better.
Photo © Amy Sussman/Getty Images
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Not surprising – especially with the news this week that CBS is looking to outsource its reporting to CNN. Simple story, the network is number three in a ratings war that isn’t about only three networks anymore and bleeding red ink… Bravo for Katie for giving it a shot… but ratings have killed many TV star in the past, and this is no different.