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Look out Katie Couric — NBCUniversal announced today it’s launching a syndicated talker starring your most successful Today show replacement to date, Meredith Vieira. The Meredith Vieira Show will debut in fall 2014. Vieira recently shot the pilot for the new series; she had begun talks with NBCU for the project shortly after she announced in January she was leaving Disney’s syndicated game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire after 11 years. Vieira, following in the footsteps of her Today predecessors Jane Pauley and Couric, is expected to do a lighter show than Pauley’s short-lived talker, or Couric’s current Disney syndicated show, playing off Vieira’s 11-year Millionaire run and her years air-traffic controlling on ABC’s gaggle show The View. No pickups were announced today, but the NBC station group has not committed to a new show to succeed freshman Jeff Probst, which did not get renewed,...

Katie Couric‘s syndicated daytime talk show will be entering its second season with an entirely new team of senior producers and a director. Two weeks after Rachel Miskowiec was brought in as new executive producer, she has made a staffing changes, with co-executive producers Kathy Samuels and Ethan Nelson as well as director Joseph Terry departing. Katie launched last fall with Jeff Zucker as executive producer and Samuels and Michael Bass as co-exec producers. Zucker and Bass have since left for CNN, with Michael Morrison and Nelson joining in January as executive producer and co-exec producer, respectively. (Matt Strauss also was bumped to co-ep then.) Morrison left late last month, replaced by Miskowiec, who is expected to install her own team. Related: Katie Couric Was Courted To Return To ‘Today’: Video The changes follow a rocky freshman season for Katie. After a strong opening, the show slipped in the ratings.

Two co-executive producers are exiting Katie Couric’s daytime talk show. Kathy Samuels and Ethan Nelson, who joined the show last February from ABC News, are exiting, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. Additionally, director Joe Terry, a well-regarded daytime player and Oprah veteran, also is leaving. Photos: The Most Talked-About TV News Faces The latest producer purges come two weeks after ABC named Rachel Miskowiec as the new Ep, replacing Michael Morrison, who himself replaced Jeff Zucker last January. And while staff changes are not unusual when a new executive producer comes aboard, the turnover at Katie has been

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Exclusive: The rumored post-season changeover at Katie Couric’s daytime syndicated talk show is a reality. I’ve learned that veteran daytime talk show producer Rachel Miskowiec will be joining Katie as executive producer for the upcoming second season. She will replace Michael Morrison, who came on board in January, succeeding original executive producer Jeff Zucker who left to take over CNN. The move comes a month after original Katie co-executive producer Michael Bass followed his former boss Zucker to CNN. (He was replaced by Ethan Nelson, with producer Matt Strauss also getting a bump to serve as co-exec producer alongside Kathy Samuels.) The shakeup also follows a rocky freshman season for Katie. After a strong opening, the show slipped in the ratings. Its numbers eventually leveled off and Katie remained No.1 in households among all freshmen for the entire season but it has been running neck and neck in...

The Young and the Restless tallied 23 nominations as honors were announced this morning for the 40th annual Daytime Emmy Awards. Restless’ impressive take helped CBS lead all networks with 50 overall nominations. PBS and ABC followed, with 44 and 38 nods, respectively.

General Hospital, which earned 19 nominations, joined Restless in the race for Outstanding Drama Series, and Sesame Street received 17 nods, including three for Kevin Clash, the voice of Elmo who faces allegations of sexual misconduct.

Good Morning America and Today will bring their ratings rivalry to the Emmys, where they’ll be joined by CBS Sunday Morning in the Outstanding Morning Program category.

Katie Couric’s freshman talk show is losing one of its executive producers. Michael Bass, a one-time executive producer of NBC's Today and a close confidant of Jeff Zucker, will join Zucker at CNN, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. Bass, who was recruited to Katie by Zucker, was one of the show’s original executive producers along with Zucker himself and Kathy Samuels. Zucker left the daytime program in November after accepting the presidency of CNN Worldwide. Katie is the top-rated freshman talker of the season, but lately Steve Harvey's show has been beating Katie among the key women 25-

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Katie Couric’s daytime talk show is getting another producer. According to sources close to the show, Ethan Nelson has been named co-executive producer alongside current co-exec producers Michael Bass and Kathy Samuels while producer Matt Strauss also will get a title bump to co-ep. Nelson comes to Katie from ABC News, where he was senior executive producer of Good Afternoon America, the 2 p.m. spinoff of Good Morning America that aired last summer with co-hosts Lara Spencer and Josh Elliott. Photos: The Most Talked-About TV News Faces Like Bass, Samuels and Strauss, Nelson will report to executive producers

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Disney-abc Domestic Television has formally renewed Katie Couric‘s freshman syndicated talk show Katie for a second season. The show has been renewed on its existing stations in over 95% of the country, including the ABC Owned station group, which already had a two-year deal for Katie. For the 19th straight week since its premiere (through the week of January 14, 2013), Katie continues to rank as the top freshman syndicated talker in Households, total viewers and women 25-54. Among all 18 syndicated talkers, Katie is No. 6 in households (1.9 rating), Total Viewers (2.497 million) and Women 25-54 (1.0 rating). On January 24, Couric’s first on-camera interview with Manti Te’o and his parents (2.6/7) jumped 30% over the show’s prior 4-week average. Katie joins fellow freshmen Steve Harvey, Trisha Goddard and Dish Nation, which also have been renewed for a second season. The formal greenlight for Katie comes days after original executive producer Jeff Zucker left to...

I’ve learned that Disney-abc Domestic Television is finalizing a deal with Michael Morrison to join Katie Couric‘s freshman talk show Katie as executive producer. I hear the hire will be announced to the staff of the show on Thursday. Morrison will take over showrunner responsibilities from departing executive producer Jeff Zucker, who co-owns the show with Couric. Morrison’s appointment allows continuity as Zucker is slated to leave for his new job as president of CNN Worldwide at the beginning of next month. In anticipation of Zucker’s exit, Disney-abc began quietly meeting with potential candidates to succeed Zucker at the helm of the show in October. When Zucker’s appointment at CNN was announced at the end of last month, the search accelerated and was quickly narrowed to several candidates with the goal to have someone in place by the end of the year. On Katie, Morrison...

Jeff Zucker could not have asked for better timing — on the morning his appointment as president of CNN Worldwide was announced, the latest ratings for his syndicated show Katie showed the talker hitting all-time highs. For the week of November 12, Katie Couric‘s daytime talk show drew a 2.1 household rating and 2.7 million viewers, its best weekly numbers ever and up 17% week-to-week in both categories. In women 25-54 (1.1 rating), Katie tied its best-ever weekly rating. Zucker and Couric co-own the show, on which Zucker has served as executive producer/showrunner. “I’m very excited that Jeff has such a wonderful opportunity at CNN and equally excited for CNN,” Couric said today. “I’m also grateful that Jeff has been so instrumental in getting our show off to such a strong start and look forward to working with the fantastic staff we’ve assembled and building on the strong foundation we’ve created.

I hear Disney-abc has launched a search for top-level producer(s) to take the reins of Katie Couric‘s syndicated daytime talk show. The contingency plan is being put in place as speculation intensifies that Katie executive producer Jeff Zucker would be leaving the freshman talker. I hear talks with potential candidates are under way, and a hire is expected within the next couple of weeks. Zucker has a major financial interest in Katie (some sources indicate he is poised to pocket $8 million from the $20 million guarantee to Couric and him), and is not likely to leave without a succession plan in place. But, having run one of the biggest media companies in the world, NBC Universal, he has been expected to jump back to the executive ranks. He currently has two lieutenants on the show: co-executive producers Michael Bass and Kathy Samuels. There has been chatter about Zucker being courted for several top jobs,...