TV Column: Couric’s case of nerves on her talk show debut

Katie has a gift for Jessica.

Jessica has a gift for Katie!

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Pulitzer Prize winner, Peabody recipient, Medal of Freedom honoree -- Lisa de Moraes is none of these, but she is an authority on the bad direction, over-acting, and muddled plot lines being played out in the TV industry's executive suites.

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(Ida Mae Astute/DISNEY-ABC) - Couric also interviewed nine-time Grammy-winning artist Sheryl Crow in her show’s debut episode.

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What are the odds!?

Katie unwrapped some cute, black bedazzled shoes from Jessica. Then Katie unwrapped her gift for Jessica. It wa a onesie with the show name “Katie” on the back.

Katie’s second guest on her first day of her new daytime talk show was Sheryl Crow, who wrote the “Katie” show theme song.

Inevitably, talk turned to Crow’s benign brain tumor. Crow says it’s located in her “cellphone area.” Katie felt Sheryl’s head. “It’s the size of my pinky [finger],” Crow said.

Crow talked about her early years as a backup singer for Michael Jackson. “He was like a kid who just didn’t grow, emotionally, past 8 or 10, when he became famous,” she said. But she dodged Katie’s questions about former fiancé Lance Armstrong, who last month said he would not fight allegations that he used banned substances during his cycling career. As a result, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency handed him a lifetime ban and said he would be stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

Then Katie introduced some pals from her middle-school years, just ‘cause, after which she brought back Crow and Simpson on stage and they stood/danced as the exit music played. The first episode of “Katie” was a wrap.

Ralph Lauren’s ‘Abbey’

After paying homage to — some might say knocking off — “Downton Abbey” with his new fall collection, Ralph Lauren has decided to make sure the show from which he draws his “inspiration” continues into perpetuity: He has become a corporate sponsor of “Downton’s” presenter, PBS’s “Masterpiece.”

When Lauren unveiled his fall collection, the takeaway of the Telegraph’s fashion writer was that Lauren was clearly one of “Downton’s” biggest fans.

Vogue, meanwhile, noted that as the curtain went up on the show, to the strains of the “Downton” theme song, “All of a sudden, the entire audience was transported, misty-eyed, to watching PBS at 9 a.m. on a Sunday night, not the Ralph Lauren show at 10:00 a.m. on a Thursday morning.”

In becoming a corporate sponsor of “Masterpiece,” Ralph Lauren has joined Viking Cruise Lines.

The franchise is now “sold out” for corporate sponsorship, for the first time since the heady ExxonMobil days, “Masterpiece” exec producer Rebecca Eaton told the TV Column on Monday. (Masterpiece Trust, the venue for individual donations to the series, is still open for business, she hastened to add.)

It’s the first television sponsorship for Ralph Lauren Corp.; the company’s first on-air sponsorship messages will begin Sept. 30 with the broadcast of “Upstairs Downstairs.” (Fall “Masterpiece” titles also include new episodes of the Kenneth Branagh cop drama “Wallander,” and the third season of “Downton Abbey,” which begins in January.)

Eaton told the TV Column the relationship will not affect the kind of programming that PBS commissions for “Masterpiece.” “It is the kind of programming we’ve always done,” she said.

“My theory is that beautiful clothes have always been the unsung heroines of every period drama we’ve done,” Eaton continued. “Sometimes people watch [the programs] for the plot, the actors, the locations, or the frocks. This is so who we are — it is not going to change anything about how we choose programs. My sense is [Lauren] was a fan long before ‘Downton,’ which makes sense, considering his taste.”

To read previous columns by Lisa de Moraes, go to washingtonpost.com/tvblog.