Katie Couric, Katie | featured news

Katie Couric finished first among new daytime talk shows during its premiere week, early stats suggest. “Katie’s” week, which started big before taking a spill, ended strong Friday with a Jennifer Lopez interview. (Couric got J-Lo to comment on the new “American Idol” judging panel by incorrectly assuring her that Fox had confirmed the names — which Fox did not do until Sunday).

Katie Couric’s triumphant return to daytime TV Monday snagged the biggest ratings for a syndicated talk show launch in a decade. 
The “Katie” unveiling tied “Dr. Phil’s” premiere back in September of 2002 and --  because we know you’re going to ask – there have been 25 daytime talk show debuts since the unveiling of “Dr. Phil.”

Katie Couric’s return to daytime TV began with Katie in bed, having a nightmare. She woke up with a jolt and said to someone in the next twin bed, who was buried under the covers: “Wow! I just had the weirdest dream! I left ‘Today’ to anchor the evening news and did it for five years, and then I dreamed I was going to be hosting my own daytime talk show!”

If you had your money on Monday, Sept. 10, as the day and date that Katie Couric would debut her new nationally syndicated talk show, you’ve won the office pool. In a webcast Thursday to TV stations that have bought “Katie” for their lineups — including WJLA (Channel 7) in Washington — the show’s executive producer, Jeff Zucker, unveiled the “Katie” logo, which looks suspiciously like the old Oprah-show logo. Except, of course, Katie’s name starts with a “K,” so the big circle around her name is technically not an “O,” but just an incomplete bit of “O”-ness.