Citytv to broadcast Katie Couric's highly anticipated new talk show, Katie

- One-hour, daily daytime show to premiere on Citytv in September 2012 -

TORONTO, Jan. 25, 2012 /CNW/ - Citytv has licensed the exclusive Canadian broadcast rights to Katie Couric's upcoming daytime talk show Katie from Disney-ABC Domestic Television. The one-hour, live daily show from the award-winning journalist, best-selling author and popular television personality will premiere on Citytv in September 2012. Katie is the latest Citytv licensed show from Disney-ABC, a partnership which also includes the hit prime time series Revenge, Happy Endings, Body of Proof, and Private Practice and daytime talk show, The Chew. Citytv is also the Canadian home of upcoming Disney-ABC series Scandal and the new daytime program, The Revolution.

"Licensing Katie signals Citytv's commitment to a dynamic and successful daytime television schedule," said Malcolm Dunlop, Executive Vice-President of Television Programming and Operations, Rogers Media. "We're thrilled to be working with Disney-ABC to bring viewers what we believe will be the breakout hit daytime program of the fall season."

In June, the Disney-ABC Television Group signed a multi-year, multiplatform agreement with Couric. The ABC News team member and former Today co-anchor will be reunited on Katie with Jeff Zucker, who will be executive producing the show alongside Couric. Katie will broadcast live every day from New York City. It is distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television and is cleared on stations representing 93% of the U.S., to date.

"We are enormously pleased to partner with Citytv in the Canadian marketplace on 2012's highly anticipated new talk show Katie," said Janice Marinelli, President, Disney-ABC Domestic Television. "Katie Couric is one of the brightest, most talented, versatile, and most dynamic television personalities, and we're delighted that Citytv's viewers will be able to tune in to her show on a daily basis."

Prior to joining the Disney-ABC Television Group, she was anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, a 60 Minutes correspondent, a CBS Sunday Morning contributor and anchor of CBS News prime time specials. When the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric debuted on September 5, 2006, Couric became the first female solo anchor of a weekday network evening news broadcast. She also writes a monthly column for Glamour magazine, which features an interview with a dynamic female role model every month and is active on Twitter @katiecouric.

The RTNDA honored the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric with the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award for Best Newscast in both 2008 and 2009. Also in 2009, USC's Annenberg School for Communication awarded Couric the Walter Cronkite Award for Special Achievement for "National Impact on the 2008 Campaign," and the University of South Dakota and Freedom Forum awarded her the Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media. In January 2010, Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism awarded Couric the Alfred I. duPont Award for political reporting for her 2008 interviews with Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric was awarded a second duPont for the series "Children of the Recession." In September 2010, The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric three Emmy^® Awards: Outstanding Investigative Journalism in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast: "Rape in America: Justice Denied"; Outstanding Business and Economic Reporting in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast: "Financial Family Tree"; Best Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast: "The Battle of Wanat." 60 Minutes also received an Emmy for Outstanding Interview for Couric's profile of Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, "Saving Flight 1549."

Couric led CBS's critically-acclaimed coverage of the historic 2008 presidential election and also launched a series of webcasts giving viewers live, exclusive web coverage of the election and the historic beginnings of Obama's presidency.

In 2000, Couric launched the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance with the Entertainment Industry Foundation and Lilly Tartikoff to fund cutting-edge research in colorectal cancer and generate awareness about the life-saving value of screening. Following Couric's on-air colonoscopy in 2000, a scientifically documented 20% increase in the number of colonoscopies performed across the country was dubbed "The Couric Effect" by researchers at the University of Michigan. Couric received the Peabody Award for her Today show series on colon cancer.

Couric is also a co-founder of Stand Up To Cancer, and in May 2008, she and her other network news counterparts participated in the first Stand Up To Cancer broadcast, an unprecedented effort that culminated in a one-hour, commercial-free, prime time program on ABC, CBS and NBC in fall 2008. Two years later, on September 10, 2010, Couric and her ABC News and NBC News counterparts, Diane Sawyer and Brian Williams, joined forces once again to host the second live "road-block" Stand Up To Cancer fundraising event. To date, $180 million has been pledged to Stand Up To Cancer to support "Dream Teams" of scientists from different institutions, working together to get new therapies to patients quickly.

About the Disney/ABC Television Group
The Disney/ABC Television Group is composed of The Walt Disney Company's (NYSE: DIS) global entertainment and news television properties, owned television stations group, as well as radio and publishing businesses. This includes the ABC Television Network, ABC Owned Television Stations Group, ABC Studios, Disney Channels Worldwide, ABC Family and SOAPnet, as well as Disney/ABC Domestic Television and Disney Media Distribution. The Radio Disney network, Hyperion publishing, and the Company's equity interest in A&E Television Networks round out the Group's portfolio of media businesses.

About Citytv
Citytv^TM television stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg offer viewers intensely-local, urban-oriented, culturally-diverse television programming. A distinct alternative to other conventional television stations, Citytv engages its viewers with dynamic on-air personalities and delivers an entertaining mix of news, local-interactive formats such as: Breakfast Television and CityLine; as well as local Canadian and US acquired prime time entertainment programming. Citytv is a part of Rogers Broadcasting Limited, a division of Rogers Communications Inc. (TSX: RCI and NYSE: RCI) which is a diversified Canadian communications and media company. For more information on Citytv stations and programming, visit Citytv.com

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Sónia Brum, Citytv, 416.764.3194, [email protected]
Michelle Lomack, Citytv, 416.764.3190, [email protected]