ABC Daytime at TCA: Get Some News Nuggets on This Fall’s Shows!
Katie Couric is back! General Hospital is standing strong! Snakkle was at the Television Critics Association (TCA) panels for ABC Daytime and has all of your need-to-know info. By Erin FoxKatie Couric’s New Show, Katie, Will Let Topics Breathe
Unlike her uber-competitive, fast-paced, quick-draw world of breaking news on Today and CBS Evening News, Katie Couric says her new talk show will allow her to take a breath and really discuss the topics at hand.
So, if news does break, for instance, like the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado, it will be addressed but at a deeper level. Couric stated, “Whether it’s talking about gun laws in this country and hearing both sides and talking about what exists and if they need to be enforced better or reasons why they may not have an impact on violent individuals like this. Maybe it’s taking a look, profiling this kind of sociopath or someone with this kind of violent predisposition and personality.”
And although the format is still being nailed down, Couric said the show could tackle one to three topics an episode. She’s also thrilled to be working hand in hand with Jeff Zucker as an executive producer. Couric enthused, “And I’m really excited to be able to work with Jeff. You know, we had some great years at the Today show. I feel like we have very similar sensibilities. We’ve worked so closely together for so many years that we can finish each other’s sentences. And I think, you know, he’s got my back. I think I trust him implicitly.”
And if you’re wondering who performs her catchy theme song—and who isn’t?—it’s Sheryl Crow! Couric was very excited to announce this, saying, “We’ve been keeping it under wraps. And Sheryl and I met in Nashville a few months ago and talked about sort of what this show is about and sort of the sensibility of the show and what we wanted to convey. And Sheryl’s someone who I admire a great deal and has experienced a lot in her life and is enormously talented, so I was absolutely thrilled when she said she would be willing to sit down with me and talk about it and then put pen to paper and write and perform our theme song.”
Katie will premiere September 10 at 3 p.m. ET.
General Hospital Turns 50!
Several of our favorite General Hospital cast members—including Anthony Geary, Jane Elliot, Maurice Benard, Nancy Lee Grahn, Laura Wright, Kelly Monaco, Steven Burton, Jason Thompson, and Michael Easton—gathered onstage to discuss their emotional success at the Emmys, and to celebrate their 50 years on the air and the revitalized stories and PR since executive producer Frank Valentini joined the show a little over a year ago.
And things should be emotional in daytime! Right? After all, there are only four series left after morning programming shifted to entertainment news programs and an endless array of talk shows.
Anthony Geary commented on his emotional acceptance speech at this year’s Daytime Emmys, saying, “I think we were all pretty emotional to get 24 nominations when we were so shaky about a year ago before Frank (Valentini) came on to shore us all up. We were—we’d been living on death row.”
The cast and Valentini seem reinvigorated by their recent Emmy nods and the fact that ABC invited them to have a panel at TCA. When asked if the show would be around for more than one year, Valentini said, “They invited us here. To me that’s a great sign, and they’re behind us 100 percent. They’re very excited about the 50th anniversary, and we’ll be laying and rolling out lots of different things between now and April and past then.… You just need to watch the show to sort of catch the energy and the momentum that we have, and the network’s a big part of that.”
Emmy winner Nancy Lee Grahn also feels relieved that a new energy at ABC is behind Hospital staying on the air. “And we were kind of like the walking dead for a little while. It was like we were heading for the iceberg, going, ‘Why doesn’t somebody do something?’ And they did. You know, ABC did.… There is new marketing. There’s new publicity.”
Look forward to the 50th year of General Hospital in a new time slot, 2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, starting on September 10.