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By Marc Peyser
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Tom and Nicole may now be the most famous unmarried couple in America, but Katie Couric and Matt Lauer run a close second. They've been cohosting the "Today" show for five years, and if you feel you know them because they come in for coffee every morning, you're not entirely wrong. He's polite and polished, though he's also funnier (and grayer) than on TV. She's chatty and candid, but more soft-spoken, less "on." What's remarkable is that despite the cutthroat business of morning TV, Katie and Matt seem to genuinely like each other. She even fibbed to NEWSWEEK about the state of her record $65 million deal to stay with "Today" because she hadn't had time to tell Matt about it first. (She did call later to fess up, and we included her comments below.) Katie and Matt need that camaraderie more than ever. "Today" has seen its lead over ABC's "Good Morning America" slip under 1 million viewers in recent weeks. Katie's contract has been a major distraction, too. And all this is playing out as "Today" celebrates its 50th anniversary on Jan. 14. (For the record, NEWSWEEK has an alliance with NBC News, MSNBC and MSNBC.com.) Marc Peyser chatted with Katie and Matt about their show, their futures and what happens when they fight.
PEYSER: Now that you got all that money out of NBC, were you ever really close to leaving?
KATIE: I don't think I ever quite made one foot out of the door, but I certainly looked at the door. It was very interesting to talk to people about this business and how it's changing and opportunities that might exist. But when I compared them to the job I currently have, I could not mentally make the leap right now, at this point in my career. I learned that I do love my job as much as I thought. That was very comforting.
Katie will have been with the show 15 years in 2006. Matt, you once said you couldn't imagine doing this job for 15 years.
KATIE: Really?
MATT: Absolutely.
KATIE: But I thought you loved your job.
MATT: I adore this job, but it's a tough life. It's not normal. But that's a very personal decision. Bryant [Gumbel] said that after 15 years enough was enough, and he was back.
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Speaking of Bryant, will he turn up on the anniversary special?
KATIE: He deserves to be a part of this. He's an extremely important part of "Today" show history. For all the people who loved him and all the people he drove crazy, he was a very important fixture of morning television.
But he wasn't always very nice to you.
KATIE: Honestly, I think Bryant and I had an excellent working relationship almost the whole time. Clearly, when you're with somebody for an extended period, you don't have a perfect mesh 100 percent of the time. He's a prickly personality. I think he would admit that himself. He's very opinionated. I feel like that's history. I'm happy for Bryant. I wish him no ill will. Let's face it, it's the TV business. People do have egos. I have an ego, Matt has an ego. Everybody has an ego and sometimes they rear their ugly little heads.
Do you worry about "Good Morning America" nipping at your heels?
KATIE: The tension is a bit overblown. If you look at the ratings in toto, they've been pretty strong.
MATT: There are going to be ebbs and flows. In many ways, it's a lot easier being No. 2. You take chances, you try new things, you always have someone in your sights. What it's done is focused us.
KATIE: Maybe we stayed with the war a little too long.
I thought the conventional wisdom was that "Today" was soft compared with "GMA."
KATIE: I think that's ABC's way of trying to get us to be more serious. I have to laugh when they do toy drives just like we do, when they do outside concerts, when they do a wedding. It's flattering, but it would be nice for them to try some things that we haven't done first.
Do you remember the first time you met?
MATT: I don't remember the first time I met her, but I remember her first day on the show. I remember running to school and telling all my classmates in sixth grade...
KATIE: He always does this. He's six months younger than I am.
MATT: I remember I thought, "This is a different animal. This is refreshing and fun."
Perky, right?
KATIE: Please don't use the P word.
What's wrong with perky?
KATIE: It's much better than nasty or bitchy or other -y words you might come up with, but it's sort of a cheap, easy moniker. It's one-dimensional. I've lived too long and seen too much to feel that I'm perky.
Matt, you've been called hunky. Got a problem with that?
MATT: I long for those days.
KATIE: I think when Matt got married, some of that went away.
MATT: Now I'm just the middle-aged, balding guy who sits next to Katie.
Fifty years from now, how do you think you'll be remembered?
KATIE: We have stripped away a little of the veneer of anchorpeople. For a long time you watched anchors and there was a bit of a divide between the person giving you the news and the person taking it in. We've been able to be really natural, to be ourselves.
MATT: The nicest compliment anybody ever pays us is when they meet us at a cocktail party and say, "You're just like you are on TV." That's really important. A lot of people in this industry are afraid to be themselves on camera.
Do you guys ever fight?
MATT: We've had one fight, and it lasted for about two days.
KATIE: We pout. We sulk. We're very mature.
What was it about?
MATT: I don't remember. But I do know who apologized. I knocked on her door and said, "This is crazy. You're wrong. I'm right. Let's go. It's over."
What's the toughest interview you ever had?
MATT: I had someone walk off immediately after I said, "We'll be right back after these messages." It was Monica Lewinsky.
But that was an interview that got tons of attention.
MATT: We are like a Rorschach test for people. Some people might think we're too confrontational at times, or not confrontational enough.
KATIE: My most uncomfortable interview was Ross Perot. He would say, "Katie, Katie, Katie!" You could say to Ross Perot the sky was blue and he would argue with you. He was very intimidating. I wasn't as strong as I wanted to be.
Do you ever worry about revealing too much of your personal lives on the air?
MATT: I personally don't feel that I've been very public about almost any aspect of my personal life. I've been very quiet about it.
KATIE: There are things that you want in your life to be private. But I appreciate people's interest because I think, most of the time, it comes from a good place. I think people know it was an awful, terrible thing I went through with Jay, and Jay went through most of all. And I think--and maybe I'm deluded--that people hope that I'll find happiness at some point.
Would you like to marry again?
KATIE: Are you proposing?
I don't think my husband would like that.
KATIE: Would I ever like to in the future? Perhaps.
Will you?
KATIE: Perhaps.
Any time soon?
KATIE: I can tell you one thing. If I ever do get remarried, it won't be on the "Today" show.
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