Katie Couric has lost her mojo.
Now 57, the former “Today’’ show anchor, who crashed and burned as the first female to helm a network news broadcast solo when she jumped to “CBS Evening News,” has reached her expiration date.
Couric, who stars in a disastrous daytime talk show that’s days away from being canceled, can’t possibly recapture the hearts and eyeballs of TV viewers who once loved her like a sister.
She’d have a better shot at becoming a successful pitchwoman for AARP than cheering up grumps over breakfast.
But suits at NBC are looking to Couric as a savior. In a desperate bid to regain morning ratings dominance, the rocket scientists running “Today’’ are in preliminary talks with Couric aimed at bringing her back to the show — at least temporarily — after anchor Savannah Guthrie, 42, goes on maternity leave this summer, The Post’s Claire Atkinson reported.
It could turn into a longer-term gig if Couric sparks a ratings bump.
(“Uh, I don’t think so. No, no, no,” Couric told CNN’s Bill Weir when asked whether she was returning to “Today.”)
I think dumping the despised co-anchor Matt Lauer, 56, overboard is a better way to save a leaky ship.
The public turned against Lauer in 2012 when, in front of millions of TV watchers, he pushed Ann Curry under the bus. Ousted as a co-anchor, Curry said goodbye to “Today” viewers as Lauer sat impatiently on a couch, ignoring Curry’s heart-wrenching sobs. It was like watching a snuff film.
“This really hurt his image,” said Henry Schafer, executive vice president of The Q Scores Company, which measures how much TV viewers like celebs.
“Ideally, you want to find a Katie Couric who’s 30,” said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research for Horizon Media, a media marketing company.
“She’d have a better shot at becoming a successful pitchwoman for AARP than cheering up grumps over breakfast.”
Few followed the phony-perky Couric when she became the CBS News anchor in 2006, then joined ABC five years later. Her chat show, “Katie,” distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, stops taping next month after two lackluster seasons.
During the time she was ensconced at CBS, we learned that Couric is a hard-core leftist. In a 2008 interview with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, she asked out-of-left-field questions about Supreme Court decisions that seemed designed to make Palin look dumb.
But it was Couric who came off like an imbecile when she complained in 2010 that a 15-story mosque and Islamic cultural center planned for downtown, two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks — an obscenity opposed by 68 percent of Americans, a national poll found — exposed “a seething hatred many people feel for all Muslims.”
“Maybe we need a Muslim version of ‘The Cosby Show,’ ’’ she actually said. “ ‘The Cosby Show’ did so much to change attitudes about African-Americans in this country.” The mosque project was eventually scrapped.
Couric now earns as much as $6 million a year as global anchor for Yahoo! News. But her interviews with heavy hitters have made barely a ripple online.
Katie stepped up to the “Today” desk in 1991, replacing Deborah Norville, who went on maternity leave and never came back. From 1996, the show enjoyed more than 16 years at the top of the morning ratings, which continued during the five years Meredith Vieira took over Couric’s chair. The joy ended in 2012, and Curry was a convenient scapegoat for the ratings loss to “Good Morning America.”
“Today” now consistently lags behind “GMA,” pulling in an average of 4.9 million viewers a day between May 2013 and last month. “GMA” scored 5.6 million viewers in that period. (“CBS This Morning” is in third, with 3 million daily viewers and climbing.)
A better bet would be to bring back Vieira, who is also said to be talking to “Today” brass — though she’s starting a new daytime talk show in September. Even at 60, Vieira is a breath of fresh air compared to Couric.
What about Curry, 57? These days, she does occasional news reports on NBC.
Giving the job to Katie Couric would be a big mistake.
It’s a sick way to get your kicks
Alleged megapunk Andre Robinson, 21, posted a video of himself on Facebook savagely kicking a stray cat 10 feet in the air in front of a Brooklyn housing project. His pals can be heard in the background laughing.
Robinson was arraigned Tuesday on a misdemeanor charge of “overdriving, torturing and injuring animals; failing to provide proper sustenance for animals.” Animal-welfare workers captured the stray and had the furball checked out in a Manhattan critter hospital.
I’m no great lover of four-legged beings. But entertaining pals by kicking a helpless living thing is a sick way to prove one’s manhood. If convicted of animal torture, Robinson faces up to a year in jail.
Good.
The V. files a mystery
Who is V. Stiviano? She has finalized the adoption of two black boys, ages 12 and 13, after being their foster mother for several years, RadarOnline.com reported.
Meanwhile, the 31-year-old mommy is being investigated by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office over allegations that she tried to extort money from Donald Sterling, 80, by threatening to release new audiotapes that could further damage the Los Angeles Clippers owner’s rotten reputation.
Sterling, of course, was heard on tapes released online berating Stiviano for bringing African-Americans to basketball games.
The NBA banned him for life, fined him $2.5 million and told him to sell the Clippers. Whatever you think of Stiviano, you’ve got to admit that raising males over the age of babyhood is admirable.
What a cool royal ‘coach’
Next, he’ll clip coupons with his granny.
Prince William, 31, was spotted flying coach on a Memphis-to-Dallas American Airlines flight Sunday, after a wedding.
Recently, grandmother Queen Elizabeth was called out in a report by members of Parliament for dipping down to her last $1.6 million in cash reserves after the royal family blew the budget.
At least one royal knows how to economize.
Rescue mission
First Lady Michelle Obama posted a picture of herself holding a sign emblazoned with #BringBackOurGirls. It referred to the 276 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram.
Brutality against children must be stopped. The United States — joined by other modern countries — must do what it takes to rescue these girls now.