BREAKING NEWS: Ann Curry is saying good-bye to her role as Today co-anchor. After only one year in the top job, Curry will tell viewers on Thursday that she is moving on to a new position at NBC.
That new gig, Curry says will be the “Today show anchor-at-large and NBC News national/international correspondent.” In this role, she will oversee a department of seven and will produce pieces for NBC Nightly News, Dateline, Rock Center, Today and as network specials. With Ann’s new deal, she will also occasionally fill in as anchor on Nightly News and elsewhere.
USA Today spoke with Curry on Wednesday and published a piece where they say she appeared to be holding back tears,
It’s “going to be a bit of a tough day,” she told USA TODAY in a 40-minute phone interview Wednesday, sounding as though she were fighting back tears. “I’m going to have to tell our viewers. That’s what makes me more emotional than anything. I don’t want to leave them. I love them. And I will really miss them.”
In the same interview, however, her enthusiasm is evidently resurrected.
Asked for examples of the kinds of stories she’ll pursue, her enthusiasm sparks.
“I would be trying to give voice to the citizens of Syria,” she says. “I would be trying to understand and report what the women in Egypt are thinking and worrying about after the elections there. I would be spending time with the new poor in America, trying to understand how families will be making that shift with the economy we’re facing.”
Over the past year, she says, she has been frustrated by limits on her ability to travel and report such stories. She has made two major trips in that time: one to Sudan and the other to Somalia.
NBC News execs say this new role is a better fit for Curry. Her attorney is negotiating her new contract which is said to put her in the new role several years insuring that she doesn’t get the boot after a year, as she did with her Today co-anchoring role. Despite rumors that she’ll be earning $10-20 million for her new role, Ann says she wishes.
“I can say that I’d love to earn that much,” she says.
Clearly, though, she isn’t saying whether or not her wishes will become reality.
As we first reported at GaySocialites.com earlier this month, Curry is the brunt of a decline in ratings at Today after losing to Good Morning America following Katie Couric’s debut on their ABC competitor.
Today airs on NBC stating at 7am EST daily.
