Game on: Sarah Palin finally gets her chance for revenge on Katie Couric

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/02/sarah-palin-katie-couric-tv

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The last time Sarah Palin went head-to-head with Katie Couric on network television, she came out of the encounter looking as though she had just been mauled by a mamma grizzly.

Asked about her foreign policy experience, the then-vice-presidential candidate boasted to the TV interviewer that she could see Russia from her house. (Okay, she didn't quite say that, Tina Fey did, but who cared?)

It got worse. Invited by Couric to name the specific newspapers she read, Palin gave the incisive answer: "Um, all of them …"

But that was three years, six months and nine days ago, and there's been a lot of water under the bridge to nowhere since then. In the enduring period, Palin may have flunked her presidential ambitions but has gone on to turn herself into a household media commodity, courtesy of Fox News, while Couric's TV ratings, despite being the highest-paid news anchor in history on $15m a year, merely spluttered along.

So who's the mamma grizzly now?

On Tuesday morning, Palin will get her first chance to get her own back on Couric for that infamous campaign interview, albeit through the conduit of separate TV channels. Palin makes a guest appearance at 8am Eastern as co-host of NBC's Today show, occupying the seat in Studio 1A that for 15 years belonged to "America's sweetheart" – one Katie Couric.

Couric, meanwhile, will be presenting simultaneously over at ABC's Good Morning America, where she is appearing all week ahead of the launch of her own daytime talk show later this year.

"Game on," as Palin put it.

The Today show said Palin would reveal "a different side of her than you've seen before", which was intriguing as many viewers must think they have already seen every conceivable side of Sarah Palin and then some. But maybe the show's directors have some surprises in store: Palin the pacifist vegetarian perhaps? Palin on the merits of European-style socialised medicine? Palin discussing the geopolitical ramifications of the Nagorno-Karabakh war?

As for her newspaper-reading habits, Palin won't have to wait until the cameras start rolling for the quips to fly. Her Today co-host, Matt Lauer, helpfully got them in early, asking the former governor of Alaska in a preview on Monday's show how she was preparing for her appearance.

"Are you reading some newspapers?"

There was a split-second pause before the penny dropped. "Ooooh," groaned Palin in mock agony. "That's a fine 'How do you do'. That's a great start. Here we go…"

It's okay to laugh now. Palin will spend the rest of her life dining out on – and making money from – her shockingly amateurish answers to Couric in September 2008. Humiliation transformed into cash cow.

But we know, and she knows, and she knows that we know, that at the time it hurt a lot. It scuppered Palin's hopes of being taken seriously at the highest level of American politics and did its bit to scupper John McCain's White House ambitions too.

There's no love lost between the two TV shows either, with Good Morning America snapping at the heels of its more successful competitor in the age-old ratings war. Latest figures put number-one placed Today at only 137,000 viewers ahead of its ABC rival.

And according to Gawker, the battle of the bookings is causing dissension among the other morning TV stars. The New York gossip website says that Couric's temporary appointment at Good Morning America has displeased Robin Roberts, the regular presenter for whom she is standing in.

So, as you flip between the two channels on Tuesday morning, do not be fooled by all the merry japes and pleasantries. All the affectionate banter will in truth be about as friendly as moose hunting with assault rifles.