Report: Katie Couric-Matt Lauer talk show under ‘serious consideration’

Joe Pompeo
·Media Reporter

The latest reports on CBS News anchor Katie Couric's expected separation from the network suggest that she may well be engineering a back-to-the-future strategy: a joint talk show with Matt Lauer, her onetime co-host from NBC's "Today" show. Couric recently confirmed reports that she's mulling a syndicated talk show deal with former NBC chief Jeff Zucker; Lauer, meanwhile, is now rumored to be ready to leave "Today."

Of course, it's not all that simple.

"Any such move would be intensely complicated. Mr. Lauer's contract extends to the end of 2012, while the new show would be expected to start in September. And NBC can be counted on to make perhaps the biggest offer in television news history to keep him at 'Today,' " writes the New York Times' Bill Carter. "But some people close to the participants conceded the notion had been 'thrown around' between the former hosts--and is under serious consideration."

Carter's piece fleshes out Entertainment Tonight's thinly sourced report last week that Lauer "has notified his NBC bosses that he will be resigning from the 'Today' show when his contract expires."

You can read more over at the New York Times.

(Richard Drew/AP)