Katie Couric Sets Exit Date—and It's Soon!

CBS Evening News anchor isn't wasting any time and will leave before her five-year contract expires

By Natalie Finn May 13, 2011 11:00 PMTags
Katie CouricCBS

Katie Couric isn't wasting any time.

Less than a month after confirming that she would be leaving the CBS Evening News when her five-year contract was up, the first female network news anchor set her end date.

And it's early.

The network announced today that Couric will pack it in next Thursday, May 19—several weeks short of her contract's expiration on June 4.

Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley wasn't due to formally take over for Couric until June 6, so it's unclear whether he'll become a lead anchor a little earlier than he thought or if CBS will employ a temporary substitute, as it did with Bob Schieffer when Dan Rather resigned in 2005.

We like to think that Couric will be immediately off to a business dinner with Matt Lauer to discuss a future collaboration, but we'll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings for the former Today host.