Katie Couric, whose big-money contract as anchor at CBS ends this summer, has been quietly meeting with ABC, according to sources.
Ben Sherwood, who took over as head of ABC News last December, met last month with Couric to discuss what she wants to do when her $15-million-a-year deal with CBS expires.
Reports earlier this month were that Couric is considering starting a daily talk show in 2012 with her old boss, former NBC chairman Jeff Zucker.
But word that ABC is, as one source put it, “kicking the tires,” gives the 54-year-old newswoman some new options.
ABC has no natural openings for Couric right now.
Diane Sawyer started anchoring ABC’s nightly newscast just 14 months ago — and with higher ratings than Couric’s at CBS.
The former “Today” show host has said she isn’t interested in returning to morning TV, and neither “20/20” nor “Nightline” offer the same daily, high-profile exposure needed to justify her hefty salary.
Still, TV news personalities as famous as Couric do not become available very often and Sawyer, who flew to Japan over the weekend to anchor the evening newscast from the site of last week’s tsunami disaster, just turned 65 last December.
It is not known how long she may want to stay on the job.
The fact that Couric is talking to others indicates that odds of her re-upping as CBS anchor are slim.
Couric’s contract allowed her, starting last week, to talk to other TV companies about another job. And, in the past few months, she has reportedly met with execs at CNN and NBC.
A spokesman for Couric declined comment last night.
A spokesman for ABC declined to confirm the meeting but acknowledged that “since returning to ABC, Ben has been meeting with a lot people across the TV industry to talk about where journalism is headed.”