Katie Couric Furious At CBS Suits. She Claims "They Are Stabbing Me In The Back."

Fiends, make that Friends at CBS | MB26

[MindBender26]

Couric Furious At CBS Suits. She Claims "They Are Stabbing Me In The Back."

Katie Couric is not a happy camper this morning. The Suits at CBS have sent a strong signal throughout the news department that they have already lost faith in her. Here are the details as reported to me this AM from an old friend at West 57th.

(Here beginnith the First Lesson.)

“Promos” (short for promotional announcements) are advertisements a station or network runs to promote their own programs. A 30 second televised message advertising Veg-O-Matic is called a “spot” (short for spot advertisement.) A 30 second message advertising the CBS Evening News is called a “promo.”

Promos are the lifeblood of an individual high-profile anchor’s ratings. The commercial time committed to promos is directly linked to increased ratings.

If a station or network has faith in a rising star reporter or anchor, they will run a “heavy rotation” of promos for that person. Likewise, if the network suits have little faith in the anchor, that personality will receive few promos.

Why not give everyone plenty of promos? It’s simple; there are only so many minutes available to run promos and spots during a 24 hour period. Every time a network airs a promo, they abandon the revenue that would have been produced by a commercial run during that same time period.

(Here endith the First Lesson)

Well… a new promo schedule has just been circulated at CBS, and Perky’s promo time is WAY down. Both the frequency and desirability of time of airing have been cut drastically. This is a clear sign that the Suits have read the tea leaves and are already abandoning Perky.

Some reduction was expected after her first week but a CBS insider described the cuts as “drastic” and “approaching abandonment.” In her words, “we would give more promo time to a “safe Halloween trick-or-treating” story than Katie is going to get.

Another horribly negative comment is now accepted as fact at CBS: “Sure, some people are going to watch us/her now, but can you imagine anyone having a choice between us and Charlie Gibson on ABC going with us if/when there is another terrorist attack?”

Already some other anchors’ agents are smelling blood in the water. The big guessing game at Black Rock is now, “Which power agent is having lunch with which CBS Suit today.”

P.S. Rather is working overtime on his new satellite- fed dinky cable show. Editors who have seen first drafts of story treatments say it is WAY over the top, sort of a "Howard Beale on LSD reading Rolling Stone straight to camera, with a Texas accent" concept.

More as available.

[04-Bravo]

I agree with you. Katie's move to CBS got lots of publicity, and they did everything they could to promote her. For her to complain now is ridiculous.

[theFIRMbss]

>Katie Couric Furious At CBS Suits. She Claims "They Are Stabbing Me In The Back"

Dear Katie:   Some gals
are starting a radio
network. Radio

is cool! You'll love it.
They won't have to photoshop
you on radio . . .

Excuse me now while
I burst into song to sing
radio to you --

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"B.B. Bumble and the Stingers, Mott the Hoople, Ray Charles Singers
Lonnie Mack and twangin' Eddy, here's my ring we're goin' steady
Take it easy, take me higher, liar liar, house on fire
Locomotion, Poco, Passion, Deeper Purple, Satisfaction
Baby baby gotta gotta gimme gimme gettin' hotter
Sammy's cookin', Lesley Gore and Ritchie Valens, end of story
Mahavishnu, fujiyama, kama-sutra, rama-lama
Richard Perry, Spector, Barry, Archies, Righteous,
Nilsson, Harry
Shimmy shimmy ko-ko bop and Fats is back and Finger Poppin' . . ."

Life is a rock
But the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder
So my DJ told me
Life is a rock but the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow
Lies a golden oldie

"FM, AM, hits are clickin' while the clock is tock-a-tickin'
Friends and Romans, salutations, Brenda and the Tabulations
Carly Simon, I behold her, Rolling Stones and centerfoldin'
Johnny Cash and Johnny Rivers, can't stop now, I got the shivers
Mungo Jerry, Peter Peter Paul and Paul and Mary Mary
Dr. John the nightly tripper, Doris Day and Jack the Ripper
Gotta go Sir, gotta swelter, Leon Russell, Gimme Shelter
Miracles in smokey places, slide guitars and Fender basses
Mushroom omelet, Bonnie Bramlett, Wilson Pickett, stop and kick it..."

Life is a rock
But the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder
So my DJ told me
Life is a rock
But the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow
Lies a golden oldie

"Arthur Janov's primal screamin', Hawkins, Jay and
Dale and Ronnie, Kukla, Fran and Norma Okla
Denver, John and Osmond, Donny
JJ Cale and ZZ Top and LL Bean and De De Dinah
David Bowie, Steely Dan and sing me prouder, CC Rider
Edgar Winter, Joanie Sommers, Osmond Brothers, Johnny Thunders
Eric Clapton, pedal wah-wah, Stephen Foster, do-dah do-dah
Good Vibrations, Help Me Rhonda, Surfer Girl and Little Honda
Tighter, tighter, honey, honey, sugar, sugar, yummy, yummy CBS and Warner Brothers, RCA and all the others..."

Life is a rock
But the radio rolled me
Gotta turn it up louder
So my DJ told me

Life is a rock
But the radio rolled me
At the end of my rainbow
Lies a golden oldie

"Listen--remember, they're playing our song!
Rock it, sock it, Alan Freed me, Murray Kaufman, try to leave me
Fish, and Swim, and Boston Monkey,
Make it bad and play it funky.
(Wanna take you higher!)

[DoctorMichael]

........Courage..........

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahhahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MindBender26]

What are the Dipsy Chicks doing?

[Ole Okie]

The Perky One has just about perked at age 49.

Perked, fizzled, whatever.

Crankcase thought they should have retired CBS News when he left. I suppose he can come back just in time to retire CBS News.

[MizSterious]

Maybe it isn't just Katie. Maybe it's the crummy slanted reporting, too--by all the "reporters." Maybe people are tired of all the fakery and bias and just don't want to watch CBS. Not that the other networks are doing much better.

[camle]

perkster? or Percolator?

[Sicon]

My understanding is that she has a five year, $75 million contract. CBS must be crazy to not support her robustly

No, they were crazy to give her that deal in the first place. Couric is, at best, a fluff-piece morning show hostess. There is no way, now or ever, that she could be taken seriously as a hard news anchor, especially working for a discredited propoganda outfit as See-B.S.

The suits responsible for the decision to make her the anchor, and to give her a 5-year, $75 million contract, should be canned pronto.

[Red Badger]

No apologies needed on this one, George M. would heartily agree! Kick Katie in her Panz!......

[Roccus]

I'd rather (heh) use her AS an anchor.

[Enterprise]

"According to the research done by Perky herself, the Free Republic sent out form letters to their 30,000-thick subscription list with market-specific information, saying if CBS stations did not stop airing Perky broadcasts, people would cease watching CBS."

[Kewz1]

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner...

; )

[aculeus]

Rather is working overtime on his new satellite- fed dinky cable show. Editors who have seen first drafts of story treatments say it is WAY over the top, sort of a "Howard Beale on LSD reading Rolling Stone straight to camera, with a Texas accent" concept.

Yahoo! Danny boy goes nuts on television! Ordering barrels of popcorn.

Great inside info! Thanks for posting to FR.

[Walkingfeather]

I have a question....

Is coming home to watch the news a part of the family culture as it was when I was a kid? I am 39 now. It would seem with kids being involved far more in afterschool activities and people working more hours that it would be in decline. I would nt know because we havent had tv in 16 years. What do you all think?

[robertpaulsen]

6. Be original. During the evening news (half) hour, I can channel-surf ABC, CBS, and NBC and see the same news story at the same time on all three networks. They also have sychronized advertising!

It happens so often I'm starting to think they call each other up before the broadcast to check.

[demkicker]

Just making sure you saw this. Poor Katie. Meredith has already made everyone forget about her on Today with her much friendlier and jovial personality.

[gridlock]

Well, that didn't take long! I didn't expect Katie to get to the "They're stabbing me in the back" stage until October, at the earliest!

[MindBender26]

Actually, the Network President will meet with the Senior Executive Vice-Presidents to design a study to be done by 19 vice-presidents to see which 7 junior vice-president will decide which overnight production assistant will be fired.

[Rutles4Ever]

She was cute as a bug! Still doesn't make up for the ugly personality.

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

My understanding is that she has a five year, $75 million contract.

The morons who approved that contract shouldbe fired,up and down the line! Nothing she ever did or will ever do is worth that kind of money.

I'd DEARLY love to know what made them think she was worth that kind of cash!