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Does Vieira Really Need A Second Job

Mixed Media

by Jeff Bercovici
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Sep 11 2007 12:00am EDT

Does Vieira Really Need a Second Job?

Let us tarry a moment in our incessant hammering of Katie Couric to hammer a bit on her Today replacement, Meredith Vieira.

Sure, Today is still No. 1 in the morning, but it's also down 6.2 percent in viewers -- and even more in its key demographic of women 25 to 54 -- since she took over Couric's chair a year ago.

So why did Vieira just sign on for three more years as host of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It's no minor commitment; The New York Times says she sometimes tapes five episodes a day, for a total of 175 a year.

If I were Today's executive producer, Jim Bell, I would've fought tooth and nail against letting Vieira expend so much of her energy elsewhere. (Of course, I also would've opposed overextending the franchise with a fourth hour, so I guess we see things differently.)

Meanwhile, Vieira's insistence that hosting a game show doesn't undercut her journalistic cred -- "I don't think I'm compromised because I do something else" -- reminds me of the way ABC videoblogger Amanda Congdon reacted when she was slapped for starring in DuPont infomercials. And no, that's not a compliment.

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