After less than two months on the air, Katie Couric may have to find a new person to run her new daytime talk show, it appears.
Jeff Zucker, the former head of NBC who agreed to produce Katie’s daytime show on ABC after years of overseeing her on the “Today” show, is reportedly in talks to leave — a big loss for Couric.
In the meantime, ABC and the show are said to be recruiting David Friedman, the former producer of CBS’ also-ran morning show, to replace Zucker, if he goes, according to sources.
The move to grab Friedman shows that Katie, at least, is willing to bury the hatchet when necessary.
Friedman’s father, Paul, a longtime TV news exec, was No. 2 at CBS News and was Katie’s biggest detractor within the network when Katie was the evening anchor there.
He was famous among the news staff his put downs of her and for keeping her from appearing on shows outside the nightly newscast, like “60 Minutes” and news specials.
The younger Friedman has been working as a freelance producer since being ousted from the CBS morning show last year.
He produced a talk-show pilot for Jenny McCarthy for NBC (the network passed and Jenny ended up on VH1) and a summer game show for the CW called “Oh, Sit!”
“It’s a new show and naturally there is stuff you want to change after a few weeks of doing it,” said an insider.
Zucker is reportedly in line to take over CNN later this year, though the deal has not been sealed.
He has been helping Katie look for a replacement “within the next couple of weeks,” according to a report yesterday in Deadline Hollywood, the show-biz industry trade site.
Couric’s launch last month was among the highest-rated debuts in recent years. But in the weeks since, the audience has been dropping off sharply.
The show has been very expensive for ABC. Couric and Zucker are co-owners of the show and are reportedly guaranteed $20 million over two years.
But the audience for the show skews old — average age, 60 — making it harder for stations to sell ads and recoup their investment.
Afternoon TV, once one of the most profitable and interesting sectors in TV, has for years been on a downslide.
The kind of audience power that made Oprah a billionaire is pretty much a thing of the past.
A spokesperson for the show declined comment.