I only read it because I want to get her on the podcast. She too is an iHeart podcaster and I figured that'd give me an in.
Not that I ever watched the "Today Show." I'm almost never up at that hour and if I want news, I'll go online, or read the newspaper. I don't need the hokey-jokey banter, I know I'm not friends with these people no matter what they project, then again, too many people are home alone and feel the connection when they watch not only the "Today Show," but QVC, it's a sad commentary on the state of society, too many people are lonely. And yes, I know some watch the show while they get dressed, but I grew up in a home where turning on the television before six P.M. was a no-no, and I went to college where there was no television and lived in Los Angeles for years without one, which is all to say if you added up the entire time I've spent watching the "Today Show" it wouldn't even be fifteen minutes, really.
But I know who Katie Couric is. Actually, I know a lot about the "Today Show," because of the talent shenanigans, they were news...Jane Pauley, Deborah Norville, Willard Scott, Bryant Gumbel, Matt Lauer...but the only person who seemed to fly above it all, who lasted, who left on her own terms, was Katie Couric.
She's cute. Let's not talk about the "P-word," i.e. perkiness. It's not only looks, but personality. You see Katie is game. For all those men, usually misogynists or rich or both, who believe a woman should be arm candy, there to be seen but not heard, there are many who are looking for an activity partner, someone who will both lead and follow, who will push and pull, who will give back, who will laugh, who is adventurous.
That's Katie Couric.
I didn't even know she had big boobs until I read the book. At one of her first jobs a male colleague mentions them. And Katie ultimately talks about her reduction. Which speaks to the honesty of this book. However there is myopia. Everyone is a victim of their own experience, as much as you see you don't see everything, not even close.
So Katie grows up in a middle class family, she doesn't have the grades to go to Smith like her older sisters, so she goes to UVA. In other words, academics were not her priority. She was not staying at home studying, she was a cheerleader, she partied, she was well-rounded, which is why so many of the grinds at elite colleges don't end up being world-beaters. You can plug them into an existing system, but they're not about pushing the envelope, breaking the rules, unlike Katie Couric.
She's aggressive. It's just that simple. She knows what she wants and she goes after it. She's not a force of nature, she's not Padma Lakshmi, with a bad reputation for needing the spotlight, needing attention, but when she's desirous, Katie goes for the target. Like her very first job at a TV station in Washington, D.C.
She didn't have the best resumé. Sure, she did some internships in the communications field in college, but she was not a star there and she was not on the fast track, as a matter of fact she took the summer off after graduation, to live the beach life. But then...
She lied to get a job. Not majorly, but...
She sent her resumé and heard nothing. So she went to the station unannounced and asked to see an executive who had two kids who went to high school with her older siblings. The guard wouldn't let her through, but he let her use the phone and she talked her way in to see this man who had no idea who she was, and ultimately a job.
Not that she was on the fast track, but... She became the darling of the horny men. Yes, if you're a cute girl with spunk, men notice and they give you opportunities, which Katie took advantage of. She didn't sleep with these dirty old men, but she climbed the ladder, went to CNN and Florida and ultimately ended up back in D.C. at the Pentagon, courtesy of Tim Russert. Like that old Buzzy Linhart song that Bette Midler made famous on her first album, you've got to have friends. Mentors are important, as long as you're not an artist. Great artists have no mentors, people can tell you where they've gone, but not where you should be going.
So it appears that Katie got the gig at the "Today Show" just like that. There's luck involved, but also that indefinable extra, and TV skews young, you reach a certain age and they're not interested, so if you want to be in front of the camera don't plan a long term attack, but a short one.
So Katie goes to NBC and she lobbies for her rights, as a woman. She wants to be an equal, and essentially is one, not that she does not encounter static in the process. But the bottom line is Katie Couric is a star, and everybody realizes it. And it's not mannered, she's just being herself. Although she is a people-pleaser, she does want everybody to like her, and is stunned when she finds out this can't happen.
And then Katie jumps to CBS as their evening anchor and it's downhill from there. But she has a very long ride.
The one with insight here is Warren Beatty, who tells her not to take the gig, because no one watches TV news at night, they all watch in the morning, and he was right but Katie thought she was making history as a woman in the evening role, she just didn't realize that no one other than the detached Les Moonves wanted her to succeed. They felt she was a lightweight who hadn't paid her dues. Never underestimate entrenched prejudice.
So, the spin on this book is its honesty, that the aforementioned Moonves is a close talker with bad breath. But "Going There" does not read as an exposé, rather it's just Katie telling her story, which is what makes it such a good read even if you're detached from her career, like me, because underneath she is just a person, like you or me. And unlike Ray Dalio and the rest of the rich male blowhards, she doesn't lord her success over you. She knows she's good, but she's not telling you she has all the answers.
Her first husband dies of cancer because he never went to the doctor. That's the number one lesson here, have a doctor and go for a checkup each and every year! If he had, he'd probably still be here. But he also was a Civil War reenactor. Katie revisits this decades later, but even at the time...what were you thinking? You wanted to be involved with a guy like this? She was ready to get married, she said how great the guy was, but that Civil War reenactment is a giant flashing red light, that her younger daughter ultimately can't understand.
She's got to manage her gig and her kids and she's not perfect at it. While her husband is still alive she hires a nearly criminal nanny who believes she's a member of the family, with equal power to the parents. And then she's a single parent. And unsupervised the older kid starts testing the limits. Meanwhile, Katie's dating.
Now there's a ton of coverage of the gossip rags, most notably "Page Six," but it's amazing how much never got out, that Katie talks about here. Going to a club to dance and drinking so much she's falling down drunk and has to go to the hospital.
And she dates Tom Werner. Who ends up being a rich Ivy Leaguer with commitment phobia. The richer they are, the more they don't want to sacrifice, the more wary they are of encumbrances.
And then she dates a boy toy, much younger than she is, even moves him into her house. Everybody else pooh-poohs the relationship, but she wants the companionship and the sex.
Yes, Katie is a regular person, with troubles just like you, albeit with a lot more dough and much richer and connected friends.
Yes, you're reading the book and you can relate, but then when she talks about dinners in the Hamptons you realize she's playing in a completely different league. She's famous, with the perks, and she takes advantage of it. Then again, when Katie sees an opportunity... She hit on both of her husbands. She's not worried about how things look, but whether she gets what she wants.
So she's hosts a failed daytime talk show after CBS, with Jeff Zucker, who says he's committed but really isn't. And it's a bad fit, anybody could see that, they don't want news in the afternoon, they want scandal, celebrity, a clubhouse before or during your first drink, hard news is taboo.
And then she goes to work for Yahoo, which is actually a brilliant move, but Marissa Mayer can't return a phone call and is more interested in clothing than business. Katie makes a serious connection for Marissa and Marissa just never calls back, forget being late. Mayer has a reputation for all of the foregoing, so we're just getting confirmation here. But it is Katie's career.
So her daughters go to Spence, where students' parents have weekend homes in Gstaad... This is the life of the rich and not famous that the hoi polloi are unaware of. There's a track, and you're not on it. It starts with nursery school and ends up in this case at Yale and Stanford. You need the money and the fame and...there's no way those august institutions are turning down Katie Couric's kids, because it will burnish their image and will get them MONEY! It's a game. If you're rich and/or went to an elite college, you know this, but most people don't. And bottom line...there's always somebody richer than you. Katie is talking about money when she's making eight figures a year, but she's playing in a league most of America isn't even aware of.
And then... She goes to a restaurant and the hostess has no idea who she is, asks her her name and Katie has to spell it. Couric has a sense of humor about this, but this is life, this is America. You peak and then it's downhill, it's nearly impossible to be king or queen forever, not that people don't try, if for no other reason than time keeps passing, they're making new people and your triumphs are in the past. Gen-Z thinks it rules the world. The best thing I heard all weekend was a TikTok star who said they didn't even have a Facebook account. Ask boomers and Facebook rules, asks youngsters and it's a graveyard they've never visited, it's creepy.
So one day before Covid, when we were all still going to the office, I opened the studio door and right on the other side were Katie and a guest. You know the situation, where you're nearly right on top of each other. And while I was still adjusting for the closeness, and realizing it was Katie Couric, she looked me directly in the eye, said hi and smiled. She was wearing jeans. She was not made up. She was just like you or me, but different. She's a winner, and she can never give up the game, it's in her blood. Read for the dates with Neil Simon and Larry King, for truths heretofore unspoken, but what ultimately makes "Going There" a good read is it's the adventure, the journey of an individual who succeeded as a woman in a man's world and not only lived to tell the tale, but is telling it. It's a good read.
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