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Katie's D-FW carrier will be WFAA8


Katie Couric's new daytime talker has home in D-FW. ABC photos

By ED BARK
Dallas-based WFAA8 has bit on Katie, the new daytime talk show that will return Katie Couric to chatty mode after her problematic reign as anchor of the CBS Evening News.

In a publicity release, Disney-ABC Domestic Television said that Katie has been cleared in over 60 percent of the country. WFAA8 is listed among the stations that recently signed on. The ABC affiliate almost certainly will schedule Katie at 4 p.m. weekdays when it premieres next September. That spot currently is occupied by Dr. Oz, with a 3 p.m. lead-in from Anderson Cooper's Anderson.

"To have garnered such exceptional clearances in this short period of time is attributable to the enduring strength of the Katie Couric brand and her wide-ranging appeal as one of the brightest, most talented and most dynamic personalities in the business," Disney-ABC Domestic president Janice Marinelli cooed in the publicity release.

Couric's brand has not been a particularly big seller in D-FW, where the CBS Evening News and Today seldom won their time slots during her tenures with those programs. Katie will air on all of ABC's owned-and-operated stations. And of the eight other stations announced as carriers Monday, only Seattle's KING-TV is not affiliated with ABC. It flies the NBC flag.

WFAA8 is owned by Dallas-based Belo Corp. Katie's executive producer will be her old Today boss, Jeff Zucker, who went on to become chairman of NBC Universal before being pushed out when Comcast took control earlier this year.