Katie Couric is expected to jump to ABC today following a lunch-hour announcement.
The timing of the announcement coincides with “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley’s first night as Couric’s replacement as anchor of the CBS evening newscast, a competitive move that will overshadow the new anchorman’s debut.
Still, after a year of speculating about where Couric would end up, today’s outcome may be the unlikeliest of all.
ABC did not show an interest in signing her until the last few weeks, when the clock was ticking down on her unprecedented $15-million contract with CBS.
Early betting was on Couric going to CNN or re-signing with CBS in a new role.
At ABC, Couric is expected to produce and star on her own daytime talk show — perhaps with an as-yet-unnamed sidekick — to start in 2012.
Daytime talk was something that Couric, now 54, has said she did not want to do after five years in Walter Cronkite’s old job at CBS.
But she conceded last year that she expected to take a pay cut at her next job and that the day of the high-paid anchor was likely over.
This new arrangement –owning her own daytime talk show — keeps her in the ranks of TV’s highest-paid celebrities and offers the promise of developing a new show for herself that will be independent of network politics.