How will she be able to hold it all together?
``I haven't really thought about it and worried about it," Couric said. ``I'll do what I've always done for 15 years and be myself. I'll react the way I react."
Couric, 49, will take June off and then report to work at CBS News. She'll start anchoring the ``CBS Evening News" in September.
Her tenure as ``Today" host began on April 5, 1991. She looked impossibly young then next to Bryant Gumbel, her playfulness a perfect counterpoint when he lapsed into self-seriousness. She was pregnant with Elinor at the time, and gave birth to her second daughter, Caroline, in 1996.
Viewers felt an immediate connection. She was family, and fans grieved when Couric's husband Jay Monahan died of colon cancer in 1998 and made her a young widow. Couric evolved from the girl-next-door into someone more glamorous -- a diva at times, some critics thought. For more than a decade, however, she has remained viewers' first choice in the morning.
Jeff Zucker, then the ``Today" executive producer, said he knew she was a natural from that first day.
``She emerged as one of the seminal hosts in morning television history," said Zucker, now CEO of the NBC Universal Television Group. ``She grew up on the air and changed both professionally and personally. She earned her stripes as one of the great news broadcasters in history. I think she'll be remembered for her ability to do both the silly and the important."
Morning shows morph every day from news to a program primarily for stay-at-home women who want entertainment and advice. A host must be able to convincingly interview a head of state and a rock star within minutes of each other.
Couric was tested early. She was being given a tour of the White House in 1992 by first lady Barbara Bush, and had studied up on things like Dolly Madison's tea set. Then President Bush unexpectedly walked in ready to talk, and Couric had to wing it for a 19-minute interview that touched on the presidential campaign and international affairs.
``I saw my life flash before my eyes that morning, at least my career," she remembered.
