Katie Couric will be ‘all over the place,’ ABC News boss says

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ABC News isn’t giving Katie Couric much time to relax before her syndicated talk show starts later this year.

Ben Sherwood, the president of the network’s news division, told reporters Monday that viewers will see a lot of Couric before the September launch of her daytime chat fest.

‘We’re going to showcase her all over the place,’ Sherwood told reporters at the semiannual TV press tour in Pasadena.

In fact, ABC is already making good on that pledge. Couric recently showed up on ‘20/20’ to interview pop diva Beyonce and even found an unlikely role as Lady Gaga’s interrogator on a Thanksgiving special. On Monday, ABC showed a promotional clip that put Couric alongside such other network news stars as George Stephanopoulos and Christiane Amanpour.

However, Sherwood said Couric wouldn’t fill in for Diane Sawyer on ABC’s nightly newscasts, which suggests Couric may have gotten her fill of the anchor desk during her years at CBS.

‘Her first priority is the syndicated television show, no doubt about it,’ Sherwood said.

Sherwood’s first year in the job has been marked by numerous changes at ABC News, including Couric’s hiring and the recent decision to replace Amanpour with Stephanopoulos on ‘This Week.’

One big goal: Toppling NBC’s ‘Today’ from its longtime perch atop morning news. The quest is especially meaningful for Sherwood, who ran ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ from 2004 to 2006.

‘The ‘Today’ show is very mighty, and they’ve been very mighty for a long time,’ he said, adding that he was determined for ‘GMA’ to be No. 1. ‘This is our goal.’

He’ll know where to go for advice: Couric was a fixture at ‘Today’ for 15 years, until 2006.

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— Scott Collins (twitter.com/scottcollinsLAT)