Katie, how can you dump us after 15 good years?
By Beth Teitell
Thursday, April 6, 2006
Was Katie Couric just not that into us? Oh, sure, on the surface she couldn’t have been sweeter during yesterday’s kiss-off on the ‘‘Today” show, with all that talk about her ‘‘very difficult decision” and the ‘‘connection” she felt with us, and how ‘‘we’ve become friends through the years.”
She loves us, really. And yet, she’s dumping us all the same. Where she’s going, we can’t go, apparently. Don’t try to fight it, sister. She’s doing the thinking for all of us. All 6 million.
Did you notice there was no ‘‘See you in the evening for some gravitas, gals”? No, ‘‘We’ll chat about the World Bank instead of diet tips, but we’ll still be together.” No, ‘‘I can’t wait to tell you about the Iraqi situation and forget all that goofing about the weather we used to do when we were younger.”
Instead, she was ‘‘grateful” for the ‘‘support” we’ve given her, but you know how it is, people change. For goodness sake, it’s not even about the money. That’s how desperate she is to run away. I half expected her to say, ‘‘It’s not you, it’s me.” Actually, she’s not leaving until the end of May, so there’s still time for that.
‘‘I’d been planning to move with her, even though I don’t have a ring on my finger,” another spurned viewer told me. ‘‘But not now. No way. What does she think I am, chopped liver?”
My guess is that Matt and Ann and Al were touched by her expressions of friendship yesterday, but even so, heck hath no fury like a network spurned. Check out this commentary on the MSNBC Web site: ‘‘ ‘Today’ veteran will have to fight perceptions as she takes CBS anchor slot,” the subhead read.
‘‘The problem, of course,” the column went on, ‘‘is whether the folks who tune in to watch the evening news really want (entertainment). The guess here: probably not. Perceptions are hard to shatter. Dennis Miller was an accomplished yukster on the club circuit and on talk shows. But when ABC tried to stick him into the ‘Monday Night Football’ booth, viewers squawked that he had no business there.”
Jeez - talk about taking it badly. What did she do, leave a note on her bosses’ fridge - ‘‘I can’t stay with someone who won’t let me grow. Goodbye.”
Well, the suits over at MSNBC may be willing to go snide, but not Katie. ‘‘So for now, it’s not goodbye - at least not yet,” she said during yesterday’s show. ‘‘But a heartfelt thank you for 15 great years.”
Fifteen years? Fifteen years? I’ve given her career the best years of my life and this is the thanks I get? I got one word for you, Katie: Palimony.
