Katie Couric

Couric was born in Arlington, Virginia to John Couric (an Episcopalian) and Elinor (who was Jewish). She enrolled in the University of Virginia in 1975, graduating in 1979 with a degree in American Studies and a sister in Delta Delta Delta. At the University, she served in several positions at the school's award-winning daily newspaper, The Cavalier Daily. During her fourth year at the University, Couric was chosen to live on the Lawn, the heart of Thomas Jefferson's academical village. Her journalism career began when she was hired by Stan Hooper as a desk assistant for the ABC News bureau in Washington, D.C., later joining CNN as an assignment editor. Between 1984 and 1986, she worked as a general-assignment reporter for WTVJ in Miami, Florida. During the following two years, she reported for WRC-TV, an NBC station in Washington, D.C., work which earned her an Associated Press award and an Emmy.

Couric joined NBC News in 1989 as a reporter. From 1989 to 1991 Couric filled in for Bryant Gumbel as host of Today, Jane Pauley, and Deborah Norville as co-anchor of Today, Garrick Utley, Mary Alice Williams, and Maria Shriver as co-host of Sunday Today, John Palmer, Deborah Norville, and Faith Daniels as anchor of the former NBC News program NBC News at Sunrise, and also for Faith Daniels, Deborah Norville, and John Palmer as the newsreader on Today. In 1990, she joined Today as national correspondent, becoming a co-host in February 1991, at first temporarily when Norville had a baby, but later on in April 1991 on a more permanent basis when Norville left Today to spend time with her newborn baby. In 1992, she began working as a collaborator at Dateline NBC, where her reports appeared regularly and she was named contributing anchor. She remained at Today and NBC News until 2006, when she announced that she would be going to CBS to anchor the CBS Evening News, becoming the first solo female anchor of any of the "big three" nightly news broadcasts. She hosted or worked on a number of news specials: Everybody's Business: America's Children, in 1995 was a report on the state of children in the U.S. Katie Couric has filled in for Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News. Couric has also filled in for Garrick Utley on the Sunday Edition of NBC Nightly News from 1989 to 1992, and also for Maria Shriver on the Saturday Edition of NBC Nightly News in 1989.

Katie Couric announced on April 5, 2006 (her 15th anniversary as permanent co-host of Today) that she will be leaving the show at the end of May, and will be "working on" the CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes, without an explicit confirmation of an anchor position. CBS officially confirmed later the same day that Katie Couric will become the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News in September. Couric will also contribute to 60 Minutes and anchor primetime news specials for CBS.