Couric is on CBS’ wish list

NBC’s “Today” show co-anchor Katie Couric is being actively wooed by CBS to be its next evening news anchor -- a move she is seriously considering, according to sources at both networks.

In recent weeks, CBS News President Sean McManus has been doggedly courting Couric to switch networks and assume the anchor seat of the “CBS Evening News,” according to three senior editorial employees at CBS and NBC.

While the 48-year-old morning host is contemplating the offer, sources said, it’s unclear whether she can formally negotiate a new job until her NBC contract expires in May.

NBC News President Steve Capus said the network hopes to hold on to Couric, who has been the face of the “Today” show for almost 15 years. He called the growing speculation about her next step “premature.”

“I don’t think she’s decided what to do,” he said. “We’re still sitting here with many months to go before this is going to be in front of us.

“Someday, at some point in the future, she is going to feel that it’s time to get off the ‘Today’ show,” Capus added. “I don’t know when it’s going to be.”

Couric’s agent did not return calls requesting comment. CBS officials declined to comment.

CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves had tried to lure Couric away last spring when Dan Rather left the anchor desk. Since then, veteran Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer has served as interim anchor of the evening newscast, a stint he expected would last only a few months while network executives pondered how to remake the show.

When McManus replaced news President Andrew Heyward in October, he announced that one of his immediate goals was to court new talent to the network. Couric has been his priority, sources said, with the news president offering her “the moon” to come aboard. Any offer would have to involve a substantial salary to match Couric’s current deal with NBC -- a reported contract of $60 million over 4 1/2 years.

The switch would represent a dramatic change for Couric, whose folksy style has been the hallmark of the “Today” show, a lively mix of breaking news, entertainment and lifestyle stories. Some network news observers question whether she would be the right fit for the more staid world of evening news.

“Her big strength is her versatility,” said analyst Andrew Tyndall. “The job of a nightly news anchor is different: It requires less range but more depth.”

If CBS is successful in signing her, the move would upend the dynamics of the evening news competition -- pitting her against her current NBC colleague Brian Williams -- and shake up the race between the highly profitable morning shows.

With Couric -- and later co-anchor Matt Lauer -- at the helm, “Today” has been the top-ranked morning program for a decade. But ABC’s “Good Morning America” has made a strong run at overtaking its rival this year, coming tantalizingly close in the spring. In recent weeks, “Today” has regained its wide lead, beating its rival by 864,000 viewers at one point last month.

The possibility of Couric’s move has all three networks locked in a complex game of chess, each trying to anticipate the others’ moves. At ABC, network officials are still pondering who should replace longtime anchor Peter Jennings, who died of lung cancer in August. One of the top candidates is Charles Gibson, co-anchor of “Good Morning America,” who has expressed interest in the post, according to several sources familiar with internal discussions.

But ABC executives may be reluctant to move him off the morning show, which is substantially more profitable than the evening newscast, especially if Couric leaves and they have an opening to overtake “Today.”

Gibson had been pulling double duty through the spring and summer, appearing on “Good Morning America” and anchoring “World News Tonight” several nights a week. But since late September, the evening anchoring duties have been split between “20/20” co-anchor Elizabeth Vargas and Saturday anchor Bob Woodruff, the other two top contenders for the post.