'Survivor' Host's Geoethnic Studies, From Soup to Mutts

DeGeneres follows Jon Stewart -- who can forget him in "Death to Smoochy"? He didn't do so well as host this past Oscar night.

Stewart, in turn, followed Chris Rock -- brilliant in "Pootie Tang." Rock stank as Oscar host. So now it's DeGeneres's turn to host.

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Meredith Vieira, who will replace Katie Couric as anchor of NBC News's "Today" show next week, says too much was made of CBS's altering of a photo to make Couric look about 25 pounds thinner in the days leading up to her "CBS Evening News" debut.

All photos are doctored, Vieira told reporters during a news conference yesterday in New York, including the one of her that's out there. "It's been touched up," she prattled on merrily as we died a million deaths because we weren't there in person to see the looks on the faces of various Very Important NBC News Suits who were also at the event.

She insisted the brouhaha over the Katie snap would not have happened if it had been a man's photo. She was, of course, wrong -- you can just imagine the kerfuffle if, say, Anderson Cooper went to, oh, I don't know, CBS's "The Early Show," and the network sent out a photo of him with blond or brown hair. Or maybe taller.

But that didn't stop Vieira from getting all exercised about the Couric photo, saying that just when you thought women were doing a lot better in the TV news industry whammo! something like this knocks the wind out of you.

Or, she added, "maybe as a woman I have a chip on my shoulder." Which was honest -- and, we think, accurate.

Even so, she had the reporters eating out of her hand within minutes. Maybe because she's the kind of person who when asked what her beverage of choice is now that she has to get up so early in the morning, answered without missing a beat, "Gin, but I don't do that anymore."

Asked why people like her so much, Vieira speculated, "I take what I do seriously but I don't take myself seriously and at the end of the day I go home to people [her husband and teenage children] who put me in my place every day."

"I'm very fortunate to have a life and I value it tremendously," she said.

Vieira was naturally asked how she thought Rosie O'Donnell -- her replacement on ABC's "The View" -- and Couric -- whom she is replacing on "Today" -- did in their debuts this week.

Vieira said she's missed Rosie's first at-bats but "heard she did a great job and I know the ratings were terrific."

Katie, she said, "did a great job."

Vieira's new partner, Matt Lauer, who was also at the news conference, said he thought Couric had done a "good job" and "showed she's a great journalist."

"Remember, you don't judge anybody by their first day," Vieira chimed in.

"Good luck on that," one reporter was heard to mutter.