Who is Katie Couric?

Katie Couric, a prominent American media personality, opened up about her breast cancer diagnosis on Wednesday in a blog post on her website. She went public about her experience of diagnosis and undergoing treatment, to raise awareness ahead of World Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2022 which will be observed in October. 

Couric has worked extensively to raise awareness on cancer as a journalist. When she underwent a colonoscopy in March 2000, she broadcast it live on NBC’s Today show which she hosted then.

During her mammography as well, she asked a technician to film it on her phone. In the blog post titled “Why NOT me?”,  she sent a message to all women to get their mammograms done on time.

Also read: Journalist Katie Couric reveals she underwent treatment for breast cancer

Who is Katie Couric? 

Katie Couric is an American broadcast media personally working primarily in news. She has hosted shows for all three major American news broadcasters, NBC, ABC, and CBS. She is best known for her interviews for CBS with former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, which created a stir in US politics.

Couric was born on January 7, 1957, in Virginia, US. Her father, John Martin Couric, Jr., was a PR executive and news editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She graduated with a BA in American Studies in 1976 from the University of Virginia.

After starting her career at ABC News in 1979, and working briefly with CNN in between, she joined NBC in 1989 as a deputy correspondent. She started hosting NBC’s Today show – a daily news broadcast, and continued in the role for the next 15 years till she left NBC in 2006. While leading the Today show was her main forte, she has also hosted other programs on the side, such as Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric, Dateline NBC and Everybody’s Business: America’s Children, to name just a few. 

She joined CBS next and became the managing editor and host for the CBS Evening News. The first episode of the CBS evening news with Katie Couric aired on September 5, 2006, making her the only solo female host of an evening news show in America- a spotlight she held till Diane Sawyer started hosting the evening news on ABC. 

While still at CBS, Couric received Emmy Governor’s Award for her career in news broadcasting. Apart from the evening news, she interviewed several top political personalities in US, including Barrack Obama, Hilary Clinton, and George W. Bush. 

Also read: Katie Couric withheld RBG’s harsh comments on anthem kneelers to ‘protect’ her

She left CBS in 2011 and rejoined ABC, where she started her career. ABC announced in June 2011 that Couric has signed a record $40 million contract to host its daytime talk show in collaboration with Disney which debuted in 2012. The show was called Katie, after its host, and it ran for two seasons till 2013.

Her next stint in the media was in digital when she was hired to be the global presenter for Yahoo! News. She worked with Yahoo from 2014 to 2017 before venturing out on her own. 

She wrote a book, founded her own multimedia news organisation called Katie Couric Media, and continues to work on multiple important issues close to her.