Relive Katie’s Best ‘TODAY’ Show Moments

The TODAY Show is where most of us first met and fell in love with Katie, and it’s also the place where she gained national recognition as a journalist. She served as co-anchor of TODAY for 15 years, from 1991 to 2006. Now, 15 years since Katie’s final day at TODAY, she’s headed back to promote her new memoir Going There. To celebrate her return to morning TV, we’re looking back at some of her most compelling moments on the show. From her coverage of the most impactful events of our lifetime to her interviews with both celebrities and newsmakers, we’ve rounded up some of the moments that both Katie and TODAY fans will never forget.

Katie Couric’s Best TODAY Show Moments

Katie’s 9/11 Coverage

Any of us who were old enough to process what was happening on 9/11 remember exactly where we were when we learned that the towers had been hit. For many of us, the person who delivered the news to us was Katie. In real-time, Katie reported the story as it developed, and later she would interview survivors and family members of those who had been lost.

At 8:51 AM, Katie had just wrapped an interview with singer Harry Belafonte when news broke that the World Trade Center had been attacked. “Apparently a plane just crashed into the World Trade Center here in New York City, it happened just a few moments ago,” Katie said on that fateful morning. She then immediately interviewed Jennifer Oberstein, who would become one of the first eyewitnesses to publicly describe the attack. Katie would go on to report on the attack for hours, guiding viewers through the day’s events as she learned about them alongside us.  

Katie’s O.J. Simpson Interview

The O.J. Simpson trial was one of the biggest news stories of the decade, if not the century. In 1994, celebrity athlete O.J. Simpson was charged with the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman. The white Ford Bronco and Isotoner gloves are items that would forever be inextricably linked with the ensuing trial, one in which Simpson was shockingly acquitted despite the mountain of evidence pointing to his guilt. 

After his acquittal, Simpson appeared in a live interview with Katie to defend his innocence. Katie started the interview with no holds barred, telling Simpson, “Some people do not believe you deserve a forum on national television. What’s your reaction to that?” As Simpson continued to declare his innocence, Katie drilled him on whether he planned to compensate the Brown and Goldman families, his thoughts on taking a polygraph test, and his reaction to the news that The Innocence Project may not be interested in a donation from him. 

Tony Bennett Performs for Katie

As a music lover, Katie has always been a huge admirer of Tony Bennett. The two of them remain good friends, and Katie even wrote a poem that she read for him at his 75th birthday party. On her final day at TODAY, Bennett performed “The Way You Look Tonight,” which was the first song that Katie and her late husband Jay danced to together at their wedding. He followed that up with a performance of Frank Sinatra’s “The Best is Yet to Come.” It was a special performance from someone who has been an incredible influence in Katie’s life, and the tribute was incredibly meaningful to her.

Katie’s Hurricane Katrina Coverage 

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina rocked the city of New Orleans. Katie went to cover the aftermath on the ground, and in an unpublished section of her new memoir Going There, she reflected on what this coverage meant to her. After describing the near-impossible conditions that people in New Orleans were trying to survive in, Katie and the crew continued their coverage in Houston, where over a quarter-million people were displaced. She describes meeting a man whose story, unlike so many others impacted by the hurricane, ultimately had a happy ending:

“One man had been wandering around with a small photograph of his grandson in his kindergarten cap and gown. He told us that he couldn’t find his wife, daughter, or three grandchildren then looked at me and said, “Help me, please, Katie.” It was about the saddest thing I had ever seen or heard. That simple, desperate sentence conveyed the anguish and desperation of so many people. A few days later, we showed him reuniting with his family. I still think about him often.”

On Katie’s final day at TODAY, the then-executive producer cited Katie’s coverage of Hurricane Katrina as her greatest accomplishment while at the show: “In sports, they say ‘big players play big in big games,’ and for us, Katrina was about as big as it gets. She was remarkable.”

Katie’s Columbine Interview with Craig Scott and Michael Shoels

On April 20th, 1999, the country watched in collective horror as survivors of what would soon become one of the most famous mass school shootings in U.S. History emerged from Columbine High School in Colorado. As the hours ticked by, families of Columbine students and teachers waited to hear that their loved ones were safe, a message that for the families of 13 victims would never come.

Two of these victims were 17-year-old Rachel Scott and 18-year-old Isaiah Shoels. Following the shooting, Katie conducted a joint interview with Isaiah’s father Michael and Rachel’s brother Craig. As Craig, who had been in the library the day of the shooting, recounted the moment Isaiah was slain, Katie reached out to grasp Michael’s arm. As Craig continued to speak about the violence he witnessed and terror he felt, Michael reached out to grasp his hand. Although the two men had not previously met, this image of their support for one another during such a profound moment of grief has become one of the most memorable images of that horrific event.  

Katie’s Interview with Julia Louis-Dreyfus 

Seinfeld is one of the most celebrated and best-known sitcoms of all time. The show’s finale in 1998 drew a whopping 76 million viewers. Over the course of its nine seasons, Seinfeld featured a number of episodes that would be referenced for decades to come, including the episode where we learn of Elaine’s dance move, aptly titled “The Little Kicks.” 

So of course, when Katie interviewed Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus in May of 1998 to celebrate the show’s finale, Katie had to learn Elaine’s dance moves from the woman herself. “The dance was fun to do…humiliating, but fun,” Louis-Dreyfus told Katie. After Katie showed Louis-Dreyfus her interpretation of the Elaine dance, Louis-Dreyfus had no choice but to step in and give Katie some good tips on how to be a terrible dancer.

Katie’s Colonoscopy

After Katie’s late husband Jay Monahan passed away from colon cancer in 1998, Katie made it her life’s mission to help as many families as she could escape that fate. At the time colonoscopies were not spoken about nearly enough, and the “taboo” nature of the procedure made it one that many eligible adults simply chose to forego. That all changed when Katie agreed to have an on-air colonoscopy in 2000 in an effort to show viewers how easy and important the procedure could be. After this segment aired, there was a significant rise in the number of colonoscopies performed and ultimately the number of people diagnosed earlier with colon cancer. This rise in colon cancer screenings would come to be known as “The Katie Couric Effect,” and would forever change the perception that the average American has of getting a colonoscopy.