[psmith2.0]

This thread is going to get me so killed here...

In any case, it's only the most stupidly hyped thing ever. If I'm home, I'll certainly click on at 6:30 to see if she's still hot and is showing any leg (what, you were expecting serious journalistic analysis from me?)

I'm just not sure this is going to take. I can see one of two things likely happening:

1. She doesn't alter her Today show vibe/tone much, and comes across as a complete lightweight. I know that's the popular, widespread view.

or

2. She alters is so much that she's a total brow-furrowed hard-ass, and wears her "serious journalist" glasses way too much.

She always put them on during the more serious, weighty Today show segments (of which there were 1-2 on any given month). When those dark frames came out, you knew it was "get serious" time...and they might even try to make you cry.



So after about 650 years of three seasoned, mature individuals (Brokaw, Rather and Jennings) helming their respective little ships, through good times and bad, we've now got Brian Williams (Bob Costas Lite), Charles Gibson (I think I can see through him, he's so translucent) and Katie Couric (who has a lovely smile).

Kinda takes some getting used to, doesn't it?



In 30 years, we might have one of the Duff sisters, Kevin Eubanks and the guy who runs the tomato stand down the street from my house.

In any case, I'll have to watch...just so I can look back, when she's 76 and looking a bit like Andy Rooney, and say "kids, I watched her first broadcast...she was a bit of a looker back then, too".

[Brad]

Katie who?

Seriously, this is the first I've heard of this. What exactly is going on?

[Wrao]

Brad beat me to it.

[murbot]

I wonder how they're going to work her pork down for a video camera...



Katie Couric Photoshop Diet



Seriously though, it took me a while to figure out who you meant until I got a ways into your thread. Then all I could think about was this:



If she says "I'm shocked" at any time during the broadcast I will laugh up an organ.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by Brad Katie who? Seriously, this is the first I've heard of this. What exactly is going on?

Liar.

Seriously, Katie Couric begins her big CBS network news anchor gig tonight, after nearly 20 years as Today show fluff-meister (and I mean that in the non-smutty context).

It was this big game of musical shows: Couric left Today to go to CBS. Meredith Vieira left her morning show to go to Today. And everyone's favorite, Rosie O'Donnell, is filling Vieira's spot on that horrible show with all the cackling hens (The View).

You're now up to speed. You're welcome.

[Wrao]

Thank you.

[SKMDC]

I don't work, well I do work, but I don't get to an office, so Pscates threads is my water cooler, I dig 'em.

Katie smirked her way through the morning of 9/11, "are the towers swaying? GOSH!" and I pretty much gave up on her then, plus she's got them little tiny teeth, too much gum, not enough teeth as my late father used to say judging the Miss America contestants.

Will she do okay? She's no Anderson Cooper, empathy is an important newsreading trait, she's never had it before....we'll see.

did she really get chunky? that's cool.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by SKMDC I don't work, well I do work, but I don't get to an office, so Pscates threads is my water cooler, I dig 'em.

Thanks. I think...

Originally Posted by SKMDC Will she do okay? She's no Anderson Cooper...

I put that down as a check in the "plus" column. That guy might have too much empathy. He seems to forever be lunging for an award or trophy. That's how he strikes me, anyway. Plus, he drew the bulk of my ire a year or so ago when I was expressing my displeasure here with the hotdogging "hurricane reporters". If there was a swaying, crinkling gas station sign or roof to be found, Cooper was under it, recounting the situation with a bit too much breathless, ominous vibe...which always led me to say "then walk further away from it, dumbass...surely your CNN contract doesn't require you to get your head sliced off by a flying Yield sign, does it?". Are they that hard-up for ratings?

Not a fan of The Coop, I gotta say.

Originally Posted by SKMDC did she really get chunky? that's cool.

Well, she's forty-eleventy-teen years old. It happens. But she's still got it going on (she's no Meredith, of course...my real fun starts next week when she begins her new gig).

I don't know. I don't watch these shows (The View, nighttime network news, etc.). From 6:00-7:00, if I'm home, I'm usually watching "Seinfeld" reruns. That tells you all you need to know about my priorities, and what I consider to be "important viewing". Giddyup!

I'll watch the Today show sometimes, mainly because it's some noise in the house in the morning and it's usually nothing so important happening on it that I can't easily click it off when it's time for me to walk out the door. Jamie Lee Curtis was on it this morning, in fact. But she was acting a bit strange and feisty, so it wasn't much fun.

[spikeh]

Originally Posted by murbot Seriously though, it took me a while to figure out who you meant until I got a ways into your thread. Then all I could think about was this:

You are the funniest motherfucker alive. 10/10.

[psmith2.0]

Don't encourage him. At least not in my thread.

[spikeh]

Originally Posted by pscates2.0 Don't encourage him. At least not in my thread.

Sorry dude It was just the way I looked at it and thought "WTF is he pulling a Vulca - oh, no, wait."

[Luca]

I'm with Brad here. By reading the WHOLE thread, I was able to deduce that you were talking about Katie Couric, and that she is leaving her morning show (the Today show) to be a nighttime news anchor at her network, which is CBS News.

I know who Katie Couric is. I know that one of the networks has a morning show called Today, and that Katie Couric is on one of the morning shows. I have also heard of ABC, CBS, and NBC, though I can never remember which one is which, much less who the news anchors are on each station or the personal plans of each one. So this "announcement" was totally off my radar.

Oh, and I know that pscates is the guy to ask about topics related to Meredith Vieira, Katie Couric, Mariska Hargitay, and any other hot middle-aged women.

[psmith2.0]

Oh well. Now we all know.

I'm watching this. Not overly impressed...she's got a bit of a preschool teacher/Al Gore thing going on: she's talking slow, over explaining stuff, etc. Not very smooth or watchable. Vaguely irksome.

Originally Posted by Luca Oh, and I know that pscates is the guy to ask about topics related to Meredith Vieira, Katie Couric, Mariska Hargitay, and any other hot middle-aged women.

Someone has to, my man. We've got a lot of little boys around here who think the sun rises and sets on quite an assortment of vacuous, anorexic teen/twentysomething types who struggle to put together a sentence.

[murbot]

Originally Posted by Luca Oh, and I know that pscates is the guy to ask about topics related to Mariska Hargitay and any other hot middle-aged women. Oh, and Meredith Vieira. Hell, Katie Couric even.

T, FTFY.

[Luca]

Originally Posted by Luca Oh, and I know that pscates is the guy to ask about topics related to any middle aged women, especially the ones who are trying too hard to look hot when they're clearly past their prime.

mega-fixed, for me (and pscates of course )

[psmith2.0]

Awww, man!

[Brave Ulysses]

She was quite awful and looking pretty damn scary. Too much makeup, too wide eyed, and here eye sockets just looked weird. Plastic surgery?

Lame. She should have stuck to her morning show.

[BuonRotto]

Anyone remember Conan O'Brien on his first night?

[Brave Ulysses]

Originally Posted by BuonRotto Anyone remember Conan O'Brien on his first night?

First night? His first year was dreadful.

I wish I had some clips of that. Anyone know where to find some?

[psmith2.0]

Yeah, it's certainly not good to totally close the book on her, based on first night (or first month or whatever) performance.

Conan was indeed a trainwreck (I saw his first few weeks, and much of his first year). He didn't hit his stride until a good bit later.

But I agree...she wasn't anything special. And I think she did have some surgery.

[murbot]

Originally Posted by BuonRotto Anyone remember Conan O'Brien on his first night?

Originally Posted by Brave Ulysses First night? His first year was dreadful. I wish I had some clips of that. Anyone know where to find some?

Actually I thought he was referring to him having too much makeup, being too wide eyed, and having weird looking eye sockets.

Wait. That's him right now. Nevermind.

[Brave Ulysses]

Originally Posted by murbot Actually I thought he was referring to him having too much makeup, being too wide eyed, and having weird looking eye sockets. Wait. That's him right now. Nevermind.

Too true

[Moogs]

Why would I gear up to watch a network news show? Doesn't matter who's reporting it, it's still shit 80% of the time. Filler between all the pharmaceutical commercials (which is really what it's about).

[SKMDC]

Originally Posted by BuonRotto Anyone remember Conan O'Brien on his first night?

hardly an apt comparison, Conan had NEVER been on TV, other than an extra on SNL skits. Katie's anchored the Today show for 15, she was also Brokaw's fill-in for a long period of time.

When I mentioned Anderson Cooper I wasn't giving him props for his empathetic skills, he is just the pendulum swing in the opposite direction of Katie.

And I was being serious Pscates, I will drop my curtain of sarcasm (briefly) to say that I like the threads you start and the way you kind of shepherd them on their way. Windswept is good at it too.

The curtain is back up suckas!

[Windswept]

Well, I watched it from start to finish, and I thought she did fine.

However, she 'did' look different from the way I remember her. I couldn't quite figure out what it was, exactly. Her skin seemed tighter... or something.

Anyway, part of the reason I thought she did fine was that I was afraid she'd come across with her sweet, cute, perky, smile-a-mile-wide persona, but she didn't at all. If anything, she seemed a little tense... not as relaxed as I imagine she'll feel after some time has passed.

She was serious, but pleasant. The whole show was pretty different. She was all around the set, standing, sitting. They had a new 'free speech' section, where people get to rant freely about some issue of personal concern to them.

And there was a section about portraits painted by American high school students of orphans in Nicaragua, taken from individual photos of the orphans. It was a pretty cool story, actually.

So all in all, I thought she did fine. I thought she acted just about right - not too smiley, but pleasant and friendly enough. She seemed to have enough 'gravitas' to carry it off.

Plus, we chicks have to stick together. haha

[shatteringglass]

Originally Posted by Windswept They had a new 'free speech' section, where people get to rant freely about some issue of personal concern to them.

I'm not so sure about that new segment, and all the new "features" on the show. It felt like watching a website or blog, if that makes any sense. I just want the news, and make my own opinions. Sadly, that's pretty hard to come by these days on TV.

Thursday, Rush Limbaugh gets to talk on "freeSpeech". (That's how it was capitalized.) Hooray. Maybe they should screen people before allowing them to rant on air. Like refusing assholes who were addicted to painkillers.

[Windswept]

Now that I think about it, one thing that seemed weird to me was that she was so *alone* out there... this big ol' set, and only one person walking around and talking. Plus, wasn't the set dark blue or something? Sort of gave it a chilly, lonely feeling, especially with her there all by herself.

When we saw Peter Jennings or Tom Brokaw, they sat at their desks and filled the screen; whereas with this set, and with the camera at a distance, she seemed very isolated in the scene. I guess it's something a person would get used to, but it was a bit unsettling for a first-time view.

Plus, I think *I* was a little tense watching her, afraid she would screw up; so 'that' didn't help.

[shatteringglass]

Originally Posted by Windswept Now that I think about, one thing that seemed weird to me was that she was so *alone* out there... this big ol' set, and only one person walking around and talking. Plus, wasn't the set dark blue or something? Sort of gave it a chilly, lonely feeling, especially with her there all alone. When we saw Peter Jennings or Tom Brokaw, they sat at their desks and filled the screen; whereas with this set, and with the camera at a distance, she seemed very isolated in the scene. I guess it's something a person would get used to, but it was a bit unsettling for a first-time view.

It did seem off. It looked like the building had been evacuated and she was the only one remaining. It was especially apparent when the camera was pulled all the way back, and she was just sitting there next to the plasma screen.

[psmith2.0]

Originally Posted by shatteringglass I'm not so sure about that new segment, and all the new "features" on the show. It felt like watching a website or blog, if that makes any sense. I just want the news, and make my own opinions. Sadly, that's pretty hard to come by these days on TV. Thursday, Rush Limbaugh gets to talk on "freeSpeech". (That's how it was capitalized.) Hooray. Maybe they should screen people before allowing them to rant on air. Like refusing assholes who were addicted to painkillers.

Oh, relax. They'll have plenty of folks from the other side of the fence who are just as vocal and opinionated. I'm shocked they'd even have Rush, period.

If they had wall-to-wall Michael Moore, Molly Ivins, Bill Maher, Al Gore, Cindy Sheehan, MIchael Kinsley, various know-nothing Hollywood blowhards, etc. you don't think people would see it for the lame, one-sided shit it was? What do you want?

If they're going to do something like this, and call it "freeSpeech", you're gonna get all kinds. You have to. That's the deal. Otherwise, it's a joke (and it may be anyway, but at least a well-balanced, all-sides-represented joke).

I watch/read/listen to the all the above people a good bit (more than anyone here would imagine). And I'm still alive.

[SKMDC]

Now for the bad news. In spite of all the publicity she still lost to ABC and Charlie Gibson in the ratings by 5 points. I think that's in Chicago, bad reporting by the radio guy not to say if it was national or local, but either way this isn't good for Katie.

I finally watched the broadcast, and it seems to me CBS plans to stick to her strengths, in other words morning TV comes to the Nightly News.