Katie Couric, CBS Discussing Pay Cut as Contract Talks Begin

Considering her ratings performance, a pay cut isn't the answer.

Katie Couric is in early talks on a new contract with CBS Corp. that could see the CBS Evening News anchor take a pay cut while expanding her role at the company, Bloomberg reported, citing anonymous sources.

The network began meeting with Couric's agent at CAA early this month, according to Bloomberg, which reported that both parties have agreed that Couric must take a pay cut to remain at CBS, whose evening news lags behind NBC and ABC in the ratings with a nightly average of 5.7 million viewers.

In addition, viewership for CBS' news program has dropped by 24% from when Couric took over in 2006, a bigger drop than both NBC and ABC have experienced during that same period.