LOS ANGELES — Daytime talk show “Katie” is ending, according to Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, following host Katie Couric’s decision to begin producing news reports for Yahoo Inc.
“Katie” will conclude in June after completing its second season, Couric and Disney-ABC Domestic Television, the program’s distributor, said last week.
Couric, 56, who once earned as much as $15 million a year anchoring the “CBS Evening News,” announced last month she’s joining Yahoo as the Web portal’s global anchor. To permit the move, she was released from an agreement to produce segments exclusively for ABC’s network news unit.
“Incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished with KatieShow,” Couric posted on her Twitter account. “Many thanks to my talented, hard-working staff &still so much to look fwd to!”
Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, said in November that a decision on whether to renew “Katie” for a third season would be made this month. Couric had wanted to continue, people said at the time.
Disney is based in Burbank, Calif. The stock has climbed 47 percent this year, compared with a 27 percent increase for the Standard &Poor’s 500 Index.
When “Katie” began in September 2012, the program drew the largest audience of a new daytime talk show since “Dr. Phil” in 2002, according to Nielsen data supplied at the time by Disney-ABC Domestic Television. Couric and Jeff Zucker, the former chief executive officer of NBCUniversal, were executive producers. Zucker became president of Time Warner Inc.’s CNN in January.
While “Katie” regularly ranked among the most-watched daytime syndicated talk shows, the program never became a replacement for “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which was also distributed by Disney-ABC and ended its 25-year run in May 2011.
“Katie” drew an average of 2.27 million viewers in the week ended Dec. 8, according to data supplied by Nielsen, fewer than the top-rated “Dr. Phil” at 4.17 million.
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