Katie Quibbles On-Air About Her Job

By Stephen M. Silverman

02/20/2002 at 01:00 PM EST

It appears that $65 million can't buy everything. NBC's highly paid morning person, Katie Couric, is reportedly unhappy with her new "Today" show boss, former "NBC Nightly News" chief Jonathan Wald, says New York's Daily News. In a candid exchange carried live over local New York station WNBC from Couric's Olympics base in Salt Lake City early Tuesday morning, the normally perky Couric complained. She said, "I'm tired, the hours are brutal . . . It's hard to make yourself go to bed at 7:30 or 8 to get up" in time for the show. Couric's sidekick, Matt Lauer, 44, also is said to be disgruntled, reveals the News, which goes on to quote sources inside "Today" as saying that there's friction backstage. "It's no secret that we're trying to make the 'Today' show run better," NBC News president Neal Shapiro told the Daily News. "I've met with everyone to try to make the 'Today' show as happy behind the screens as it is on the air." When she was reached for comment, Couric, 44, said that everything was fine. "Matt and I like Jonathan very much," she said to the News. "We want to give him every chance to succeed." He needs to: While the 50-year-old NBC program remains the top ratings grabber and is currently enjoying an additional viewership boost thanks to the games in Salt Lake City, in recent months the audience gap between "Today" and ABC's "Good Morning America" has shrunk to 870,000 -- half what it was a year ago, says the News. "It's our job to narrow the gap again," "Good Morning America" executive producer Shelley Ross told the paper. "I have confidence we will."