Is Katie Too Late?

Mass communication is quickly becoming more and more dependent on the Internet. We now create our own media through sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger, and are no longer obligated to the bias that news channels may hold sometimes. That being said, there are still hundreds of news programs on television, and people watch them every day. That’s great for people who don’t like or don’t have access to the Internet, but for the rest of the population, much of the headline news consumption is from sites like Yahoo, The Daily Beast, CNN’s website, and more.

With this knowledge in mind, let’s think about the parameters of Katie Couric’s new show, Katie. It’s set to debut on September 10, and naturally, there’s a lot of speculation going around about it as of right now. Katie’s new daytime show is certainly coming on at a time that makes her the predecessor to Oprah Winfrey’s famous talk show. After Oprah left daytime, there was a huge space to fill and most daytime talk shows don’t cover really deep subjects like Couric’s will.

Couric plans to talk about family dysfunction, dating violence, sexless marriages, and more serious topics than some other talk shows. As a result, her show has already been compared to Oprah’s. Katie speaks about the subject, saying, "Comparisons are inevitable…[But] I'm a very different person from Oprah, with my own sensibilities and life experience."

Couric certainly has a wonderful presence that makes her extremely likeable. She’s been known to chat up fans during long breaks in her shows, and the public recognizes her quite well when she goes out. The Daily Beast reports:

“When they walked down the street, says Rick Kaplan, her executive producer at CBS, “you would have thought I was with the Beatles.” When her husband, Jay, died of cancer in 1998, America embraced the young widow, and while she now has a Hamptons-hopping lifestyle, there is a well of public affection for her … You can’t bottle that. The question is, will it be enough?”

Because the new show is debuting in such a technological age, it may be difficult for Katie to start from scratch and gain great ratings quickly enough to stay afloat. So while Couric certainly has a lot of appeal to fans, she’s got big shoes to fill and a battle with the Internet.

Tune in to Katie on September 10. Until then, have a great week!