Campbell Brown Heading To CNN?

NBC anchor Campbell Brown is in talks with CNN about hosting a nightly talk show and is likely to accept the offer, sources familiar with the situation said yesterday.

While NBC has the contractual right to match the CNN offer, the sources said, executives at the broadcast network are not inclined to pay the seven-figure salary that would require. The sources insisted on anonymity in discussing confidential personnel matters.

Brown, who has not appeared on the air in recent weeks, co-hosts the weekend edition of "Today." She has made little secret of her unhappiness at being passed over for Meredith Vieira last year when Katie Couric left the morning show to become the CBS anchor. In a gesture to demonstrate its commitment to Brown, NBC made her the principal substitute for Brian Williams on "NBC Nightly News."

NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust would say only that "Campbell is under contract with us through the end of July."

Brown, 39, a onetime reporter for Washington's WRC-TV, last year married Dan Senor, a former spokesman for the U.S. civilian authority in Iraq. NBC executives hold her in high regard as a correspondent and weekend anchor, but with no major promotion available she has told colleagues she wants the imprint of her own program.

Brown, a former White House correspondent for NBC, has reported from Iraq, the West Bank and Gaza, and covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the death of Pope John Paul II.

CNN is considering Brown for the 8 p.m. slot now occupied by Paula Zahn, whose ratings have improved this year among viewers aged 25 to 54 but who sometimes finishes third in the time period behind Fox's Bill O'Reilly and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.

Howard Kurtz hosts CNN's weekly media program, "Reliable Sources."