Formerly the perky co-host of Today and much less perky anchor of the CBS Evening News, Katie Couric is an omnipresent fixture on news television.

Couric began her television career as a desk assistant in ABC News's Washington bureau in 1979. She gradually worked her way up to on-air reporting, joining NBC as deputy Pentagon correspondent in 1989 and received the co-anchor position on the Today Show in 1991. Couric spent six years sitting alongside Bryant Gumbel before earning a new couch-mate in 1997 when Matt Lauer became co-anchor, and filled the airwaves with peppiness during Today's golden age.

By 2006 she skipped out of studio 1A to move to CBS to take over the evening newscast. Publicly, Couric said she was thrilled to return to hard news and inherit one of the most prestigious jobs in television. CBS pulled out all the stops to promote their pricey new hire; however, ratings plummeted, and in 2011 she left her post to Scott Pelley. She then began working as a Special Correspondent for ABC and is launching a talk show, Katie, for 2012. Couric is also a major spokesperson for colon cancer research, prompted by the death of her husband in 1998. [Image via Getty]