Katie gets slapstick-y on own youtube channel
06/17/08 12:13 PM
By ED BARK
Katie Couric figuratively wears a corset while anchoring the CBS Evening News. But she's been cutting loose on her own youtube channel with video vignettes of her various travels.
In one recent addition, she's shown shuttling to an appearance on NBC's Today show for a joint "Stand Up To Cancer" appearance with rivals Charles Gibson and Brian Williams.
"I'm trying to get into the 21st century, Charlie. It's not easy," she tells Gibson backstage of her youtube sideline.
"But I'm not," a smiling Gibson rejoins. "I'm still in the 19th."
Couric and her camera person later encounter Kathie Lee Gifford being made up for the fourth hour of Today, which she co-hosts.
"Kathie Lee, turn around. You're beautiful without makeup," Couric teases. In fact it's something of a horror show, although Gifford plays along in a way that Couric assuredly wouldn't were she surprised in this way.
Still, it's a game effort, on Couric's part at least, to "humanize" herself in the eyes of those who see -- or don't see -- that side of her on the Evening News. Meanwhile, her ratings remain brutal.
In the latest weekly Nielsens (June 9-13), the Evening News averaged 5.74 million viewers in again running far behind the NBC Nightly News (7.98 million) and ABC's World News (7.50 million).
Couric also finished a distant third with the younger viewers she was supposed to attract. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, the target advertiser demographic for news programming, Nightly News hauled in 2.54 million, followed by World News (2.33 million) and Evening News (1.76 million).
In trying times and with her long-term future in serious doubt, Couric at least puts on a happy youtube face. Here's the aforementioned video:
Katie Couric figuratively wears a corset while anchoring the CBS Evening News. But she's been cutting loose on her own youtube channel with video vignettes of her various travels.
In one recent addition, she's shown shuttling to an appearance on NBC's Today show for a joint "Stand Up To Cancer" appearance with rivals Charles Gibson and Brian Williams.
"I'm trying to get into the 21st century, Charlie. It's not easy," she tells Gibson backstage of her youtube sideline.
"But I'm not," a smiling Gibson rejoins. "I'm still in the 19th."
Couric and her camera person later encounter Kathie Lee Gifford being made up for the fourth hour of Today, which she co-hosts.
"Kathie Lee, turn around. You're beautiful without makeup," Couric teases. In fact it's something of a horror show, although Gifford plays along in a way that Couric assuredly wouldn't were she surprised in this way.
Still, it's a game effort, on Couric's part at least, to "humanize" herself in the eyes of those who see -- or don't see -- that side of her on the Evening News. Meanwhile, her ratings remain brutal.
In the latest weekly Nielsens (June 9-13), the Evening News averaged 5.74 million viewers in again running far behind the NBC Nightly News (7.98 million) and ABC's World News (7.50 million).
Couric also finished a distant third with the younger viewers she was supposed to attract. Among 25-to-54-year-olds, the target advertiser demographic for news programming, Nightly News hauled in 2.54 million, followed by World News (2.33 million) and Evening News (1.76 million).
In trying times and with her long-term future in serious doubt, Couric at least puts on a happy youtube face. Here's the aforementioned video: