Will Katie Couric say "Good-Bye" to NBC?

Speculation is mounting this week surrounding whether or not Katie Couric, NBC's 15-year-vetern and darling host of the Today Show, will leave the network to become the host of the CBS Evening News. If Couric were to take the CBS job, she would be the first female to ever serve as the solo anchor of a flagship network.

Couric is currently finishing out her $65 million contract, under which NBC paid her more than $15 million per year, that is not up until the end of May.

Michele Greppi of Advertising Age writes:
Because Ms. Couric is the biggest star -- and collects the biggest paycheck -- in TV news, there have been months of frenzied speculation and false rumors about every angle, including whether her ambition to sleep later and become the first female anchor to solo as the top network anchor was stronger than her long friendship with Jeff Zucker, the former “Today” executive producer who now is the president of the NBC Universal Television Group.

High Stakes for NBC
NBC arguably has more at stake than CBS in the situation. NBC can’t afford to run off viewers by making the wrong choice of successor to Ms. Couric on the cushy couch next to Matt Lauer, Ms. Couric's polished co-anchor for the last nine-plus years. Neither does it want to lose any of the in-house contenders, especially the well-regarded “Weekend Today” co-anchor Campbell Brown, who might feel their career hopes have been thwarted.

CBS Risks
To be sure, much money rides on CBS’s gamble that Couric can successfully make the leap from TV best friend to TV navigator of weighty news stories.

Tags: NBC , CBS , Katie Couric , Today Show , News , Media