NBC's Couric competing more for celebrity 'gets'

NEW YORK -- As if three hours of top-rated morning television wasn't enough, Katie Couric is turning up on NBC in prime time this month to interview celebrities like Ben Affleck and disgraced journalist Jayson Blair.

This is the latest sign that Couric is competing harder for celebrity "gets," which are more in play as ABC's Barbara Walters -- who long dominated this cutthroat arena along with Diane Sawyer -- prepares to give up her weekly "20/20" perch this fall.

"I would be delighted if every interview that Barbara got went to NBC," said NBC News president Neal Shapiro.

He'll believe Walters is slowing down when he actually sees it. Clearly, though, the networks aren't passively waiting to see how the dynamics will shift.

Late last year, Couric also scored interviews with Elizabeth Smart and Tom Cruise.

"I don't think NBC puts a lot of pressure on me to do more," Couric said, "but if there's something very interesting and I want a crack at it and want to do a longer piece, I'm excited about it, too."

A particularly potent prime-time interview, like Sawyer's talk with Mel Gibson last month about "The Passion of the Christ," sends ratings soaring far beyond typical newsmagazine fare.

They also appeal to television executives as inexpensive programming, certainly cheaper than a comedy, drama or investigative news story.

Walters, who has spoken to Martha Stewart and Sen. Hillary Clinton in the past year, has complained that because of ratings pressure, news figures are increasingly taking a back seat to entertainers as interview subjects.

"The whole climate of our news industry now is pop culture," said former network newswoman Connie Chung.

CBS is less of a player in this field, primarily because dominant newsmagazines "60 Minutes" and "60 Minutes II" rarely run straight interview pieces -- with the major exception of Michael Jackson in December.

Sawyer, who's had a strong run over the past year, is arguably at the top of the heap now. Besides Gibson, she's recently interviewed President Bush, Howard Dean and wife Judith Steinberg, Aniston and the Dixie Chicks.

It's one of the few areas where NBC News, leader in morning, evening news and Sunday talk ratings, is not dominant.

"NBC is saying, 'Wait a minute, the game of big interviews has gotten so lopsided in favor of Diane and Barbara that we just can't permit this to continue,"' said David Doss, Sawyer's executive producer at ABC. "I think it makes perfect sense that they're putting (Katie) out there more."

ABC is ready for her. Plotting to keep its advantage, ABC is reportedly negotiating to hire British interviewer Martin Bashir, known for his top-rated chat with Jackson a year ago.

Several factors make Couric a natural for her increased role, foremost being that she's already one of NBC's most prominent journalists.

As hosts of morning news shows, Couric and Sawyer can both tell potential subjects that their interviews will play both morning and evening. Blair, for example, was to follow up his prime-time interview with an appearance Monday on "Today."

Advantage, Couric: NBC's "Today" consistently draws higher ratings than "Good Morning America."

With the departures of Jane Pauley and Maria Shriver, NBC's pool of interviewers has shrunk. Stone Phillips and, to a lesser extent, Matt Lauer and Ann Curry have actively sought these interviews.

NBC last year hired Pat O'Brien of "Access Hollywood" to conduct some celebrity interviews on the network -- notably Affleck and Jennifer Lopez when they were still together -- but few additional interviews have resulted.

Couric said she enjoys the challenge of longer interviews, where she doesn't always have to keep one eye on the clock.

"She's an incredibly talented interviewer," Shapiro said. "There's an insight and a wonderful attitude that she brings. Of course, we'd like to try to get her on as much as she can."

Will Couric become NBC's version of Walters?

"I have an enormous amount of respect for Barbara Walters," she said. "She's a huge trailblazer, and I'm not just giving her lip service here, she's been wonderfully kind and gracious to me. She says things where she sees me as a young version of her -- until she says neither of us are particularly glamorous. Thanks a lot!

"I would like to do a lot of the things she has done, not everything that she has done, but she has a whole body of work that she can be proud of."

Like Walters, Couric said she'd like to interview more world leaders than movie stars.

"But the climate is such that there's so much emphasis on ratings, that that's hard to do," she said. "When there is so much emphasis on ratings, it's hard for true journalism to thrive."