Katie Couric, who now has her own daytime talk show Katie, was on Howard Stern’s radio show and revealed that NBC did approach her about going back to The Today Show. She also said that there are a long list of celebrities she turned down for dates, including Michael Jackson.
While chatting with the America’s Got Talent judge earlier this week, Couric said that she and Matt Lauer had discussed reuniting for a show and that there was talk of her coming back to Today. However, those talks quickly fizzled.
“Matt and I had talked about possibly teaming up and doing a show at some point,” she said Tuesday, notes The Hollywood Reporter. “And there were some cautious -- I would say cautious -- overtures to me to possibly come back to the Today show, but then they sort of evaporated.”
Stern pressed on and asked if that was ever a possibility. “For me, that was the best job,” she said about her tenure there.
Couric also said that she had a “little crush” on Lauer when he was an anchor for WNBC. “I thought he was so funny and so quick.”
According to E! News, Stern also turned to the topic of her dating life, and recalled her date with Bob Saget as “fun, he was really fun.” But he never called her back and she thought it was more fun for her than him.
She also dated Jeff Probst, the longtime host of Survivor. “I think he had puka shells on—that was kind of a weird thing,” she remembered.
She added, “I can't say that I was devastated that neither called me back. I thought they were both nice guys... I don't think there was real magic there with either [of them], but I enjoyed spending time with them.”
Later, she revealed that Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Michael Jackson’s spiritual adviser, had tried to set her up with the late King of Pop. In a phone call that took place at her Today office, “[He said] 'Katie, I have a question for you, are you seeing anyone?' And I thought, this is so beyond creepy that Rabbi Shmuley is hitting on me. I'm like 'Rabbi Shmuley, you have like nine kids, what's going on here?' I said 'Actually, I am [seeing someone].' Because I had a boyfriend at the time.”
She continued, “He said, 'Oh, that's a shame...Michael [Jackson] said to me 'That's the kind of girl I would like to go out with...' and I said, 'Rabbi Shmuley, that's very flattering but I am seeing someone...will you tell him how flattered I am and what a nice compliment that is?”
Couric added that she did “regret” never going out to dinner with Jackson. “That would have been insane—breaking bread with Michael Jackson!” she said.
image: ABC