Returning to Daytime TV, Vieira Will Host Talk Show

NBC’s syndication division did not say whether it had completed any deals with local television stations. But executives involved with the production of “The Meredith Vieira Show” expressed confidence that stations, including the 10 owned by NBC in big cities, would snap up the rights to the show in short order.

Daytime television, with its blend of information and entertainment, is terrain Ms. Vieira knows well: she was one of the original hosts of “The View,” the ABC talk show that Barbara Walters started in 1997. Nine years later, she signed off “The View” to succeed Katie Couric on “Today,” and helped keep that morning show on top of the ratings. Ms. Vieira left “Today” in 2011, exhausted by the early-morning hours and eager to spend more time with her family. She remained with NBC as a special correspondent. (The “Today” ratings winning streak ended 10 months later.)

By persuading her to return to daytime talk, NBC is betting that Ms. Vieira can help prop up the ratings for local stations at a time of increasing competition for the audience’s attention. Syndicated talk shows can be lucrative for their hosts and corporate backers. But they can also be immensely challenging, as Ms. Couric has demonstrated in her first year as the host of “Katie,” a product of the Disney/ABC Domestic Television division of the Walt Disney Company.

Since its debut last September, “Katie” has not lived up to the expectations of Ms. Couric or the stations that paid a handsome license fee for it. While the show has been renewed through next summer, many syndication observers expect it to end at that point, either because Ms. Couric will choose to do something else — she has been unhappy at times with the fluffy nature of daytime TV — or because stations will choose to put on a different show.

If “Katie” ends in 2014, some stations (which license syndicated shows from a variety of companies, sometimes regardless of their own corporate affiliation) could pick “The Meredith Vieira Show” as a replacement — which would be an interesting wrinkle, given the intertwined history of the two women.

NBC, however, tried on Tuesday to manage expectations about “The Meredith Vieira Show,” having concluded that Ms. Couric and Disney excessively hyped “Katie” ahead of time.

The company will most likely seek out early afternoon time slots for the show, not the late afternoon slots that are typically highly rated and more highly sought. Also, the show could be televised in the late mornings by some local stations, putting it into direct competition with Ms. Vieira’s old show “The View.”

In a statement on Tuesday, Ms. Vieira said she wanted the show to embody what she called the “three H’s”: heat, heart and humor. “And speaking of the heart, I want to thank my husband, Richard, and kids, Ben, Gabe and Lily, for strongly encouraging me to take this incredible opportunity,” she said, and added, “or else they really just want to get me out of the house.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/10/business/media/meredith-vieira-to-return-to-daytime-tv-as-talk-show-host.html?partner=rss&emc=rss