Katie covered news and topics "that people care about". It was essentially a lifestyle show, but with news components to reflect Couric's background and interests. During an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2011, Couric said that she expected the show to cover various issues and be a mixture of The Oprah Winfrey Show and Today. When launching the show, Couric had incorporated her affiliation with the ABC News division into her talk show. Colleagues Christiane Amanpour, Deborah Roberts, Sam Champion, Leo Jean, Matt Gutman, Richard Besser, Marci Gonzalez, Jim Avila, Dan Abrams, Josh Elliot, Brian Ross, and ABC World News Anchor Diane Sawyer made appearances on her show to report on events related to news. Couric had The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg, Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan of Live! with Kelly and Michael, and some cast members of the soap opera General Hospitalcome on the show.
Production
On June 6, 2011, it was announced that Katie Couric had signed up a deal with Disney–ABC Television Group for a syndicated talk show that would premiere in September 2012 and be distributed by Disney–ABC Domestic Television. In the process, ABC announced intentions to relinquish to its affiliates the final hour of its daytime programming lineup, occupied at the time by the soap opera General Hospital, to make room for the new program. The decision was made due to resistance from ABC affiliates to air Katie at 4:00 p.m. because many of them expanded their local newscasts during the timeslot after The Oprah Winfrey Show went off the air in 2011. In March 2012, Couric and Zucker reportedly expressed concern to ABC executives about having the ABC Daytime talk show The Revolution as a possible lead-in to Katie due to the program's stagnant ratings and concerns of potential fan outcry should the launch of Katie result in the cancellation of General Hospital. On April 11, 2012, ABC decided to keep General Hospital on the air, while effectively canceling The Revolution. ABC later announced that General Hospital would be moving to the 2 p.m. timeslot starting September 10, 2012, thus making it the lead-in for Katie on most of the ABC stations carrying the program. The first official promo for the show was released on June 14, 2012. Katie premiered on Monday, September 10, 2012. The show airs at 3:00 p.m. on all eight ABC owned-and-operated stations, as part of their local schedules. Approximately 96 percent of the affiliates that carry the show in the 50 top U.S markets are ABC stations. Although affiliates are encouraged to air Katie during the 3:00 p.m. timeslot, the actual airtime of the program varies from one market to another. The executive producer of the program was former NBCUniversal CEO and former executive producer of Today, Jeff Zucker. He left the show in January 2013 to join CNN. In Canada, Katie ran nationwide on the City network at 4:00 p.m.. On January 30, 2013, Katie was renewed for a second and final season. On December 19, 2013, it was announced that Katie was canceled. In a statement, Disney-ABC and Couric said: "We've mutually agreed that there will not be a third season of the show. We're very proud of everyone’s contributions to making Katie the No. 1 new syndicated talk show of 2012-13, and we look forward to the rest of the season." Beginning in the 2013–14 television season, seven of the network's O&O stations and the network's San Antonio affiliate decided to relocate General Hospital back to the 3:00 p.m. ET/2:00 p.m. CT timeslot via tape delay.
