Katie Couric Guest Hosts NBC Today As Megyn Kelly Makes NBC News Her New Home

The return of longtime 'Today' show anchor Katie Couric to the program as guest co-host for co-anchor Savannah Gutherie, who is on maternity leave, didn't make the media headlines we would have expected. Back on the set for the first time since Couric left in 2006, moving to CBS News in the biggest, most publicized contract negottiation in years -- if not ever -- Couric's news was upset by an even bigger bombshell from NBC News.

"It just feels like I never left," Couric told Lauer an hour into Monday's show. "And you make it so easy, Matt, because you're so great at this job."

Couric, who has a milestone birthday, turning 60 on Saturday, was the perfect person to join Dr. Oz for a segment about health at that age. Did she know that hours later, NBC News would announce the departure of Fox anchor Megyn Kelley, now primed for a wide-ranging role at NBC?

The headlines referenced Megyn Kelly's negotiations with NBC as the biggest ones since Couric left NBC for CBS.

The reasons behind Kelly's decision are multi-layered and all agree that she didn't leave Fox for more money. The Ruper-Murdoch-owned Fox had publicly offered Megyn Kelly $20 million to renew her contract, prompting NBCUniversal News Group chairman Andrew Lack to say previously that the network wouldn't match that offer.

Much has been made of Megyn Kelly's conflicts with president-elect Donald Trump and the ouster of Fox co-founder Roger Ailes on charges of sexual harassment. Kelly added an emergency chapter to her new book 'Settle for More' in which she addressed the Ailes scandal. While she and Fox star Bill O'Reilly were not close before, O'Reilly accused the second-ranked Fox show host of making Fox News "book bad".

"Now that I've gotten into primetime things have become more competitive between us, just given the nature of where we are," she said, referring to O'Reilly. "And that is just true of us as personalities. But it wasn't like I was palling around with him and going to the movies together."

Kelly has openly spoken of her desire to spend more time with her three children, two of whom arrive home from school just as she is leaving for her weeknight show.

“I have these three little people who need me and who I really love and like to spend time with and the current schedule I’m on is not ideal for a mother of young children,” Kelly told THR (The Hollywood Reporter) in October.

Megyn Kelly will have her own Monday-Friday daytime news show on NBC. She will also host a Sunday evening news show, scheduled against CBS 'Sixty Minutes'. The Fox superstar will also participate in key NBC political events and national, breaking news events.