Katie Couric Recalls Feeling ‘Crazy’ After Losing Lady Gaga Interview She Pitched

Katie Couric has revealed that several high-profile interviews she pitched to CBS were taken away from her – including a planned sit-down with Lady Gaga.

The Emmy winning journalist, 69, admitted it wasn’t always easy fighting her corner, particularly when it came to working at 60 Minutes.

Appearing on the Call Her Daddy podcast on June 24 and speaking to host Alex Cooper she recalled a particularly frustrating time when she wanted to profile an up and coming star.

“The head of 60 Minutes at the time — I think maybe because he wasn’t really consulted about bringing me over,” Couric, who had moved to CBS from NBC News and Today three years prior, explained. “I was sort of seen as somebody from a different network coming in and sort of muddying the waters. I hadn’t come up in the CBS system. So I don’t know, he just didn’t like me.”

She continued, “I said, ‘There’s this incredible singer and I think she’s gonna be the next Madonna. She’s so interesting. She went to Catholic school, but she’s so outrageous and she’s huge and she’s got, you know, a huge number one song. I think we should do a profile of this person: Lady Gaga.”

Her suggestions fell on deaf ears though and she was told it was not for them.

But fast forward a year, and with Gaga enjoying continued success with “Poker Face”, “Papparazzi”, and “Bad Romance”, as well as memorable MTV appearances, it was decided now the time was right.

“I was like, ‘Okay, well she’s kind of overexposed now,'” Couric recalled. “And I thought, you know, wouldn’t it be nice to get somebody right as they’re about to pop instead of a year later?”

Things got even more frustrating when Couric learned CBS had scrapped her plans for the segment. She recalled seeing “Lady Gaga, Anderson Cooper” written on the newsroom whiteboard, meaning that Anderson Cooper – not Couric – would be conducting the interview she had originally pitched.

“It made me crazy,” she admitted.

This wasn’t the only time Couric lost out on an idea she had suggested. According to a report from Entertainment Weekly published on Wednesday, June 24, she also told how a profile of then–Secretary of State Hillary Clinton went to something else even after she had been told to work on it. She said bosses didn’t give her a real reason for why they went behind her back and changed things and it “made me insane”.

“Talk about getting gaslit,” Couric continued. “I mean to me, that is the definition of it.”