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NEW YORK -- Morning news superstar Katie Couric, who bids adieu Wednesday to NBC's Today after 15 years, does not view her next gig -- anchoring The CBS Evening News -- as a "second coming" of network news.
"I don't have a lot of control over the hype. I'm just trying to keep my blinders on," Couric says. "I don't think anyone expects me to come in riding a white horse and save the day. I'll just try to be part of a terrific team of journalists and do as much as I can in the role I have."
Couric begins banking stories for The Evening News and 60 Minutes in July. "Obviously, we'll be having a lot of brainstorming sessions about some things we may want to do. It'll be fun."
Her first day as anchor of the third-place News is Sept. 5 in what is bound to be a closely watched race, with dollars and prestige on the line among the Big Three network news divisions.
Couric, 49, will square off against No. 1-rated NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams, 47, and Charles Gibson, 63, who was named last week to succeed Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas on ABC's ill-fated two-anchor experiment with World News Tonight.
"I've always cared about quality first and ratings second," says Couric, who at about $15 million a year will be the highest-paid network news anchor. "I know other people focus on ratings. I understand that: It is a business."
Conservative bloggers have pegged Couric as a liberal -- something that dogged News anchor Dan Rather for years until he stepped down in 2005.
"I'm going to be tough but fair, what I've always been," Couric says. "People have very strong opinions. You just have to do the best job you can."
Couric says she'll bring sensitivity and empathy with her. "Even as a child I had a good ability to gauge what other people were going through, and I think I brought that to the Today show."
She says she had "led a charmed life pretty much until I was 40. Things were easy and pretty much went my way."
But the death of her husband, Jay, in 1998, from colon cancer, and then her sister, Emily, in 2001, from pancreatic cancer, "reminded me how much suffering is going on in the world."
On days "when you wake up and you feel good and your children and people you love are healthy and you're in a good situation in terms of a job and being able to care for your family, I think that a little gratitude is called for. You sometimes forget how lucky you are."
Calls, letters and flowers have been flowing in since Couric announced April 5 that she was leaving Today. Muhammad Ali and his wife, Lonnie, sent flowers, "which meant a lot to me"; actor Michael J. Fox "sent flowers and a sleeping mask"; and Bush White House aide Karen Hughes called to say that Couric's move to CBS represented "what a woman could be."
*Couric's favorite moments, 8D
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