Katie Couric banned from plugging her bombshell book on CBS
Katie Couric has been banned from promoting her new book on CBS after she slammed the network — and its former boss Les Moonves’ bad breath — in her dishy tome.
The former “Today” anchor — who disastrously hosted “CBS Evening News” from 2006 to 2011 — had been booked to promote her bombshell memoir, “Going There,” on “CBS This Morning” with Gayle King.
Until CBS News chiefs and producers read the book.
In the tell-all, Couric — who has unleashed some unvarnished truths about her time at NBC as well as dishing on her rival anchors — also writes snootily about CBS and its news division.
She reveals that when her gig at “CBS Evening News” started to go down the toilet because of sagging ratings, then-CBS boss Les Moonvestried to shuffle her to the morning show.
Couric describes how Moonves told her, “ ‘We’ve been thinking about you and what you’re good at. The evening news really doesn’t give you a place to showcase your talent.’ Oh, boy, here it comes … ‘Would you be interested in going to the morning show?’ he said. ‘You’re so great at it, and they could really use your help.’ ”
But she says she replied, “Absolutely not … I didn’t leave the morning show I helped make number one so I could go to the third-place morning show.”
She added, “I had come here to accomplish something, and if it didn’t work, it didn’t work. I’d rather leave the network than retreat to the morning show, which at the time was a cheap imitation of the other two.”
In 2011 CBS announced a new-look “CBS This Morning” with hosts Erica Hill, Gayle King and Charlie Rose. The show is currently hosted by King, Nate Burleson and Tony Dokoupil.
Couric added in her book about Moonves — who was fired without severance in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations in 2018 — “I always liked Les Moonves, even though he was a close-talker with bad breath.”
She added in the book of her arrival at CBS, “At an affiliates’ meeting, Les would smugly disclose how he finally got me to say yes: ‘We drank many bottles of expensive wine on the sofa in my apartment … Don’t worry, my wife was in the next room.’ Hardee-har, Les.”
Reps for Couric and CBS could not be reached. But a TV insider insisted that Couric had also been in talks to appear on CBS Sunday morning, before her appearance was abandoned. The insider said, “The segment was never [officially] booked, it was only in discussion.”
source: pagesix.com
