Katie Couric On the Verge of $20 Million ABC Deal (and Kills General Hospital)

tmz ^ | 5/5/2011 | TMZ Staff

[tlb]

Katie Couric and ABC television are on the verge of signing a $20 million deal, which would give Katie her own talk show, as well as significant involvement in ABC News -- and the big casualty could be "General Hospital."

ABC would also give Katie a 1-hour, 5-day-a-week syndicated talk show, that would begin in September, 2012. Our sources say ... one option ABC is considering is giving its affiliates back the hour where "General Hospital" airs to make room for Katie. In other words, ABC would axe the third longest-running soap in history and the last one standing on ABC.

We're told ... when the dust settles and ABC's daytime schedule gets rearranged, Katie would probably land in the 3 PM time slot.

BTW ... we're told Matt Lauer will NOT be part of Katie's show.

As for the moola, our sources say the entire package for Katie and her partner, Jeff Zucker is a $20 million GUARANTEE for the syndicated show -- and that's just for the the first year.

[CORedneck]

Colon girl should drop out of the public spotlight !

[Jack Hydrazine]

I don’t see why so many FReepers are getting upset over this. It’s ABC’s money and if they want to waste their money on Katie then let them. More power to them!

Let the Dinosaur Media Deathwatch continue with Katie and ABC in their dance of destruction. I want to see how much money ABC is willing to throw at her before they throw her under the bus.

Place you bets here how long this relationship is going to last and how much money ABC is going to burn as a result of their enlightened decision.

Any time Leftists throw their money away is a good day for me which is an excuse to celebrate.

[HIDEK6]

This show is not a money-making proposition. It’s more like an infomercial that the commies bought from ABC.

[rustbucket]

Katie simply killed off General Hospital before ObamaCare had the chance.

Speaking of ObamaCare, I just got a note from my doctor that said:

... you will be asked to complete a new “Patient Demographic Data for Meaningful Use” form. This form asks each patient to identify their race, ethnicity, and preferred language. [The doctor] has initiated this first step in response to the Federal Governments’ Federal Health IT Strategic Plan 2008.

I'm sure the government having such information will make me much healthier.

[I Buried My Guns]

a “couric” is a unit of fecal weight.

[libh8er]

What is it with liberals that make them invest in failure again and again

Failure is a resume enhancement with liberals. The more they fail, the higher they rise in stature. Jimmy Carter, the second most failed president in history is now a statesman. B H Obama, a disaster of epic proportions, after his one term presidency will be an even more revered statesman than Carter.

As for failure itself and in the rare instances when liberals do admit to it.. why of course it's everybody and everything's fault except the person who failed.

[Dahoser]

Translation: new Hard Left talking-points show to get the democrat, MoveOn, Soros, mOslim, hate-America propaganda out to the soccer moms. Filling the OHprah void.

[PATRIOT1876]

I’m surprised anyone is willing to pay her more than minimum wage

[PATRIOT1876]

Shouldn’t she be working for Huffinton Post, moveon.crap or Al-Qaeda?

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Katie must have something on the suits at CBS - else they would have unceremoniously showed here the door.

[Pecos]

Thanks for the heads up on the form. Now I have more time to think up inventive answers.

Race - 5K
Ethnicity - Engineer
Preferred Language - FORTRAN

Other contributions are welcome.

[jtal]

Any time Leftists throw their money away is a good day for me which is an excuse to celebrate.

Yes , I'm with ya. Great to see the MSM squander their dwindling resources. My only fear is the inevitable Obama bailout of his pals in the MSM.

Just another example of the Leftist establishment taking care of its own.

[UB355]

My household did not watch the Perky one on NBC, did not watch on CBS, will not watch on ABC.

[Bigg Red]

...you can bet not one loyal GH viewer will watch her!!

&&&
I would not take that bet; women who watch soap operas do not egage in much critical thinking. Many of them will tune in to Couric to have her tell them how to think.

I am willing to bet the Obananites are behind this. It will be a perfect platform for pushing the socialist agenda.

[Bigg Red]

What is it with liberals that make them invest in failure again and again?

&&&
I wish I shared your belief that it will fail. IMO, Couric’s show will be successful as a platform for the Pharoah’s agenda.

[rustbucket]

Great minds and all that. I had thought to put

Race - NASCAR
Ethnicity - Texan
Preferred Language - FORTRAN

I see we speak the same language. I could claim engineer ethnicity too. Maybe I should hyphenate my ethnicity entry since hyphenation is in vogue these days. My ethnicity could be: Texan-engineer

[DTogo]

Suggested name for Katie’s new show: General Asylum

[jtal]

RACE - American League West
ETHNICITY - Texan-Engineer
PREFERRED LANGUAGE - Verilog

******

Since so many of us are engineers, I’ll add:

EDITOR - Emacs

[Pecos]

Maybe Engineer-American

Race - Soapboxderby

Given that FORTRAN is nearly a dead language, I’ve been thinking about taking up Latin (which may actually have more followers these days). Then, I could claim to be a Latin-American. ;-)

[Just mythoughts]

Well I can't wait for all the ‘hate’ speech for Katie getting stinking rich... Will she also get special tax loopholes and/or waivers, because she is liberal???? I mean really ABC could donate that time slot to the needy and donate her salary to the treasury.... if these Sybils had a honest DNA gene in them we could really make some ‘progress’.