Couric joins ABC News, will host weekday talk show

LOS ANGELES — Katie Couric is moving back to her comfort zone: daytime TV.

The popular news personality and the Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC television network on Monday announced a comprehensive deal that includes a high-profile role for Couric beginning this summer within the ABC News division, and starting in September 2012, the launch of a syndicated daytime talk show.

Couric will produce and own the talk show along with her onetime “Today” show producer, former NBCUniversal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker. The pair spent more than a decade together building NBC’s morning program into a ratings and profit juggernaut, and they now will team up to tackle the midafternoon block and attempt to fill the void left by the departure of Oprah Winfrey.

Couric, in an interview, said she expects her new program to be topical and blend elements of the “Today” show and Winfrey’s program while also incorporating interactive features in a bid to appeal to the social media crowd. (Couric has become a frequent Twitter user.)

“People are interested in intelligent conversation and perspective, something that puts the tsunami of information that crosses over us each day into some type of context,” Couric said. “The show will have smart conversation about a lot of different things.”

The move is significant because it shows how networks, in this case ABC, are willing to open their wallets to land a recognizable personality in an era of media fragmentation and smaller budgets. The abundance of TV channels, combined with the immediacy of the Internet and the allure of social networks and video games, has made it more difficult for networks to attract large audiences for their daytime programming or make the kind of money in daytime that they did in the past.

ABC is betting that Couric has enough star power to appeal to viewers young and old and revitalize the daytime landscape after ABC next season retires its long-running soap operas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live.” If Couric’s show — planned for 3 p.m. weekdays — performs well, it could help funnel viewers into the late afternoon newscasts that ABC stations have long depended on for a portion of their profits.

Monday’s announcement capped weeks of media interest over where Couric would land after she finished her five-year assignment as anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” a venture that Couric now concedes did not play to her strengths.

“Twenty-two minutes is a very short time, and the evening news is designed to reach people who want a snapshot of the world’s news of the day,” Couric said. “It’s harder to roll up your sleeves and really delve into an issue. I did a lot of interviews but they were cut down to 2 1/2 to 3 minutes, and that’s frustrating.”

ABC also believes that Couric is a skilled interviewer who will immediately add depth to the ABC News bench, insiders said, and deliver the type of prime-time interview specials that have long been the hallmark of Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer. Th

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