Why This MattersThe new PBS series We'll Meet Again is reintroducing Ann Curry, ousted from NBC's Today in 2012, to television audiences.
Three Years after she departed NBC News, and five and a half years after she signed off as a Today host, Ann Curry is back on television.
Curry is the host and executive producer of We'll Meet Again, which debuts Jan. 23 on PBS. The series looks at colossal events in history, such as World War II, the civil rights fight and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and how each event tore individuals apart.
Though she was hesitant to look back, Curry was at the white hot center of her own news drama in 2012, after being forced out at Today, followed by a ratings drop, amidst a rivalry with Matt Lauer, who was fired Nov. 29 after an investigation into a complaint of inappropriate sexual relations with female colleagues. It was one of multiple such incidents involving Lauer to surface.
In her first appearance on TV since her abrupt and highly publicized departure, Curry told CBS This Morning hosts Jan. 17 when asked about Lauer: You know, I'm trying to do no harm in these conversations. I can tell you that I - I am not surprised by the allegations. She added, I can say that I would be surprised if many women did not understand that there was a climate of verbal harassment that existed.
Her main focus now is We'll Meet Again. The premiere episode depicts a Japanese-American girl shunned by classmates after Pearl Harbor was bombed, except for one little girl who stayed by her side. The two are reunited on the show, some 75 years after the Japanese-American was sent to an internment camp.
Curry describes We'll Meet Again as human history from the point of view of everyday folks. She likens the show to shopping for a gift for someone I love, and waiting to see what they feel when they open the gift. My gut tells me they might feel something powerful.
Curry spoke with B&C about We'll Meet Again, the state of news today, and what TV journalism might look like down the road. An edited transcript follows.
Where did the concept for the show come from?
It came from a woman named Justine Kershaw, who runs Blink Films. She came to me, and PBS got involved. It has evolved from this trilogy of women, Kershaw, [PBS chief programming executive/general manager] Beth Hoppe and me. It's a hard idea to come up with, reuniting people who've been separated by major world events. How do you tell the story, using a major world event as the spine of your narrative? How do you weave two different people's experiences together and follow that timeline?
Then the idea came: What if we document their efforts to find this other person, and can they actually be reunited? There have been reunion stories before, there have been historical narratives. There have been finding your roots stories, and trying to trace another person. Weaving them the way we do, we felt like we were building a road.
Is there one story that you keep coming back to, thinking about?
Probably the Mount St. Helens one. [That episode shows a survivor of the volcano eruption seeking out the helicopter pilot who saved her.]
I didn't think I could do the 9/11 episode. I covered 9/11 and it was very, very tough emotionally. The story we did is about goodness, kindness, courage and beauty, and it kind of reframed how I feel about 9/11. I've since been able to go to the [September 11 Memorial and] Museum.
All of them have really great moments, but if I were to pick one, the Mount St. Helens one, simply because I'm moved by stories of heroism and there is certainly a hero story there.
Why was PBS right for the show?
PBS has been a wonderful partner because, as we have moved step by step through the process, every time I wanted to make sure we dealt with a problem or an issue in a way that would be most responsible journalistically, they were absolutely on board. When we do these stories, you're unpacking a memory, often a traumatic memory. In the World War II piece, I asked Peter why he cared about Fritz and Stella all these years later. [It's about a boy who fled the Nazis with his parents, and bonded with a different family after relocating to Shanghai.] I asked him several times until he finally came to it - that Fritz was like a surrogate father to him. That was a revelation to hear; he'd never put those words together.
We wanted to make sure we take care of these people, we handle the stories responsibly. You want to do the stories in a way that's caring and thoughtful as well as asking the hard questions. PBS has been an awesome partner on all those levels.
Do you miss working in morning news?
I love sleeping in, you have no idea! I sleep until 7 o'clock in the morning and sometimes even later. It's unbelievable!
I used to get up at 2:45, or 3:45 later on. You're up in the middle of the night. It's so hard physically; I feel such empathy for people with jobs like that, because I did it for so many years. Getting a normal night's rest, it's a huge joy. I look at my alarm clock at 7 and say, Woo! Yay!' Who does that?
I've done so many great, in my view, stories, and had great experiences. I miss that. I miss some of the people I [worked with], especially behind the scenes. You foster these really deep connections.
I actually am as happy as I've ever been. I'm soaring in my new life, having started my own venture, working on a number of projects, being my own boss and setting my own hours. I think oftentimes when you work independently you can actually work more easily on things you really believe in, do the things you feel will be useful for others. I feel very alive, very in the moment.
Do you envision getting back to a regular anchor role?
I'm always open to something that would b
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Why This MattersThe new PBS series We'll Meet Again is reintroducing Ann Curry, ousted from NBC's Today in 2012, to television audiences.
