Disney-ABC Domestic Television has announced the debut of their new Katie Couric daytime talk show, Katie. Many soap opera fans have been against the show from the beginning, ever since it looked like it would replace General Hospital. According to one report however, the new series could end up helping to save the soap from cancellation.
Supposedly, executive producers Couric and Jeff Zucker are concerned about their show following The Revolution, the self-help series that replaced One Life to Live and quickly became a ratings disappointment. They want General Hospital to get Revolution’s timeslot so they have the soap as their lead-in. Word is they also don’t want to incur the backlash of angry soap fans and be blamed for the cancellation of the last ABC soap.
Per the most recent ratings, General Hospital has the smallest number of total viewers of all four remaining soaps. Compared to last year, GH is down 343,000 viewers and averaged about 2.3 million. The Revolution’s been attracting about 1.6 million, well below what One Life to Live did a year earlier.
Here’s the press release regarding the premiere of Katie:
“KATIE” TO PREMIERE MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2012
Executive Producer Jeff Zucker Announces Key Updates, Hires for Katie Couric’s Upcoming Syndicated Daytime Show
Executive Producer Jeff Zucker today announced key production updates for Katie Couric’s highly anticipated nationally syndicated talk show, “Katie.” The live, weekday show has already been cleared in 94% of the country, and will premiere on Monday, September 10, 2012. The show is distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television.
In an internal webcast to television stations that will air “Katie,” Zucker unveiled the show’s logo, and announced additions to the senior production staff including Director Joe Terry, who has spent the last 14 years as Director for “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and Co-Executive Producer Kathy Samuels. Samuels is a producer with nearly 20 years of television experience, including live television and daytime talk show programming at NBC, Paramount Domestic, and CBS, and has been a part of several successful launch teams, including “Rachael Ray” and “Access Hollywood.” Zucker will serve as the day-to-day showrunner.
The webcast was conducted from TV One at ABC’s Manhattan headquarters, which will serve as home to the “Katie” set. The studio itself has a rich history, having served as the backdrop to the Kennedy/Nixon Presidential debates, and has housed broadcast programming including “Good Morning America” and election night coverage. “Katie” will broadcast live, weekdays in front of a studio audience.
“Katie and I are thrilled to share these updates with our partners and Katie’s fans,” said Zucker. “We now have our studio, a great-looking logo that exudes all of the qualities that we want the show to convey, and a terrific team with a diverse background of experience. We couldn’t be more excited about September 10. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Katie Couric is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author and popular TV personality. In addition to hosting the new nationally syndicated program “Katie,” Couric is also a member of the ABC News team. “Katie” will be executive produced by Katie Couric and Jeff Zucker and is distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television.
For the latest news about the show, subscribe to Facebook updates from Katie, and follow her on Twitter.
What do you think? Will Katie help save or sink General Hospital? Will ABC’s decision influence whether you’ll watch the new show or not?
I will also stop watching ABC completely if GH goes off the air. Right now I only watch Revenge and Castle and GH anyway. After AMC and OLTL went off the air-I stopped watching Good Morning America, Local ABC news, Dancing with the Stars, 20/20, well actually ever single ABC show on air right now. You blew it ABC!! Not only that but we are NEVER going to another Disney Park again-ever!!
Just a question. What in the ____ is “Anderson” still doing on? I made the mistake of not changing the channel once while doing dishes and I’m sorry but a robot has more personality and less annoying monotone voice! Katie Couric couldn’t make it in evening news and Jane Pauly’s show on abc failed so why repeat the same mistake?
Both Katie Couric and Jeff Zucker are wise to want GH as a lead in, because they could very likely then gain soap opera fan viewers for their show , as opposed to alienating the already wearied, but strong-willed ABC Soap fan base. I think it is quite possible that GH and Katie’s show can help eachother. Katie puts a few of GH’s stars (like Steve Burton, Laura Wright, Michael Easton, etc.) on her show, and BAM, she is sure to gain GH fan support, while at the same time, the exposure can boost GH’s ratings as well. There is… Read more »
ABC died for me the day they killed OLTL. The only way I’d ever watch ABC again is if they returned OLTL to the air.
As far as Katie. Good luck getting viewers. Who wants or needs another talk show, they are boring as hell!
Listen, if General Hospital would move to 11:00 PM and put Katie at 2:00PM Edna, Texas time, then maybe the two shows would help each other in the Ratings Department because, as my Username on this computer states, I am BOTH a soap opera lover and a talk show lover all rolled into one big walking, talking and breathing tortilla.
I will be so bummed if they cancel GH! I am not interested in Katie’s show and The Revolution and Chew are just stupid.
I have watch GH for years and I would never watch Couric if GH is taken off the air, many people I know have stopped watching ABC because of all the canceling of shows that people have watch forever and soaps even our grandmothers lived to watch. In my opinion Couric would not add anything to the ABC rating, I never watch her when shes on any other talk show. For once why don’t the Directors and Writers listen to the people who pays for cable to watch the programs we want to watch, we are the people who actually… Read more »
I’m not really a fan of GH but however my sister is a fan of the show. And i think if it gets canceled it will be a hudge mistake Disney/ABC will ever make!! And if katie show airs i think it will do very poor and get very low ratings.
Sick to death of talk shows and reality shows, great they have low budgets compared to paying casts but give the world a break, we get enough reality on our own and the shows like revolution, katie, and chew are all boring. We like to get lost in our tv sometimes and forget all the junk going on, we want to be entertained not preached to, shown how we are wrong in what we do, or how written the world is or isn’t we just wanna have fun…GENERAL HOSPITAL is a must to stay but we are not enthused about… Read more »
What on earth could Katie Couric talk about that anyone would want to hear?????? There is not one thing about a talk show with Katie Couric that I can imagine anyone wanting to watch. This is going to be a complete failure – just like the Chew and the Revolution – Believe it or not they actually sound more interesting than a talk show with Katie Couric – That is one show that if I watched it I would feel that that was one hour of my life that I will never get back.
How will Katie help when her ratings end up as low as Revolution’s? Katie won’t bring in ratings, and unless she took a huge pay cut, she will cost the network more than the soaps they cancelled.
I will not watch Couric’s show if she kills my beloved GH. If she helps GH, then I will respond to her with open arms.
We, as in our family and many friends are continuing our boycotting of ALL THINGS ABC and Disney for their having canceled “One Life to Live” and “All My Children.” That boycotting, by the way Disney/ABC, includes Katie Couric’s forthcoming ABC daytime talk show, “Katie.” In response to these cancellation policy decisions, decisions made by Disney’s Robert Iger and ABC’s Anne Sweeney and Brian Frons, ABC is witnessing half of the Daytime audience fan base flee its network programming entirely, as some acutely perceptive observers many months ago had well predicted would be the tragic outcome. In an honorable business… Read more »
i hope gh stays!! but i think abc wants it gone no matter what, even if katie saves gh i still wont watch that show, shes boring and will fail.
abc cancels my General Hospital and I will delete the channel. That is all I watch on that cancellation station. I even stopped watching 20/20 in favor of Dateline! That’s pretty bad! The revolution was a bad idea and they should’ve left OLTL alone!