Koppel to "Meet the Press?" Well...? (The TV Zone)

Ted for Tom on "Meet the Press?" I mused about this a little while ago, pretty much tossing aside the possibility. But there's now some reason to think - why not?

[You ask, why replace Tom Brokaw? Because he probably WANTS to be, as he has said any number of times...]

Here are some possible reasons on why this succession could actually work...followed by some "why it might not" reasons...(A clue why not? $$$$)

* The desire's there and Ted will soon need a job. For years - let's say forever - Koppel resisted the idea of doing "This Week" at ABC, or any other Sunday ayem show, in part because he did have one of the great gigs in television ("Nightline") with a life/work schedule that he pretty much wrote. But with the Discovery job now over, he's looking for a new gig. I just got off the phone with his longtime associate and producer, Tom Bettag - these guys go back many Emmys ago - who told me, "Ted isn't at all ready to retire and at this point, will look out there to see what the next opportunity is..."

* The next opportunity may well be "Meet" and I'm told - by those all-knowing, all-seeing "sources" - that he's interested, or per one, "he's not averse to talking to NBC about 'Meet the Press' [but] I think the odds are against it."

* Koppel, 68, brings that sturdy, authorial, statesmanlike "gravitas" which one assumes is so vital to this sort of gig - the sort of gravitas that says to the bloviating congressman sitting across from the moderator, "don't BS me, pal - I'm the boss here, and I've heard every line under the sun, moon and stars." Bob Schieffer brings that to "Face the Nation" - in a nice Schieffer sort of way.

* No obvious successor to Brokaw at NBC. And frankly, if this person WERE obvious, they woulda picked him or her by now.

* Couric doesn't want it. That's my hunch anyway cuz she'd have to relocate to D.C., and her life (children) is up here. Plus, I think I heard somewhere that she anchors a nightly news show already. So she is gainfully employed.

Now...reasons against:

* He's not an NBC lifer. In a sense, a problem because this is almost more a symbol than a "job" - a symbol of a news division and culture that stretches back (on TV alone) sixty years.

* There would by ill-disguised fury among some at NBC who think they're entitled to it; no names but you can guess who they might be.

* Age - at 68, how much longer? Maybe years longer (and isn't 68 the new 58?), but it'd be hard for NBC to argue that this is somehow a "permanent" move (ah, but what is "permanence" in TV news? 'Tis a dream, a figment, an illusion...)

* He's outta practice. Seriously! Koppel's been away from an interview-style format show for years (he left "NL" three years ago...) Could he pick it up again? Sure, but...

* He's gotta big price tag. Hey, in case you haven't noticed, we're in a massive recession, and even NBC is feeling it; big cuts are coming there, and can you imagine? Ted asking for and getting his usual fee? (I think it was approaching $10 m per year in the waning days of ABC.) I leave the most obvious reason for "why not?" last.

(Above - Ted looking professorial, as well he should at this Harvard function; photos by Harvard Gazette staff photographer by Justin Ide.)

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Koppel to "Meet the Press?" Well...?

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