Katie Couric lines up Jessica Simpson as the first guest on new talk show

Katie Couric on the set of her new daytime talk show, "Katie. (Andrew Eccles - Disney-ABC Domestic Television) Answering the burning question as to what direction former CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric will take with her new daytime talk show: Disney announced Tuesday that Jessica Simpson will be Courics first big get when the program premieres Sept.10.

Simpson will be making her first post-baby TV appearance. This is relevant and newsworthy because Simpson who put on a lot of weight while pregnant with her first child was signed by Weight Watchers to become their new spokeswoman if she can get the weight off. Word on the street is that the weight loss hasnt gone so well. On the premiere episode of Katie, Simpson is going to discuss the intense challenge of losing the weight and nasty rumors about that, Disney said.

And this, serious students of TV, is why its always better if celebrities wait until after theyve lost the weight to leak to the media that theyve been signed by Weight Watchers as Jennifer Hudson did. File this under Celebrities Who Paint Themselves Into a Corner and Then Blame the Media.

We dont recommend putting any money on Couric asking Simpson about that, since one of the most endearing traits of daytime talk show hosts even ones who used to be journalists is that they dont ask tough questions, lest celebrities publicists decide to give their show a miss going forward.

Also appearing on Katies first episode: Sheryl Crow, who wrote and performs the shows theme song. Crow will discuss for the first time, insists Katie her recently diagnosed brain tumor.

That may come as a surprise to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which reported back in June, via one of its columnists:

Sheryl Crow has a brain tumor, but shes not worried about it because its benign. She gave me this startling news with a smile during an otherwise lovely interview.

I worried about my memory so much that I went and got an MRI. And I found out I have a brain tumor,Crow said ... in a suite at The Hotel in Mandalay Bay.

Crow continued in that interview: I havent really talked about it.... Its benign, so I dont have to worry about it.

Then theres Katies Day-2 get: 24-year-old Aimee Copeland, who this summer lost part of all her limbs to a rare flesh-eating bacteria. According to the show, she will def[y] all odds and walk, for the first time to Katie Couric on stage.

Its all part of Women Who Are Reinventing Themselves month on Katie, the show announced Tuesday because its a new beginning for Couric.

Other guests include the incomparable Barbra Streisand, who appears! not to b! e reinventing herself, but who will discuss her passion women and heart disease; Jennifer Lopez, discussing her reinvention post-American Idol; Demi Lovato, discussing her reinvention pre-X Factor; and Sharon and Lexie Love, whose daughter/sister Yeardley was murdered two years ago by her ex-boyfriend at the University of Virginia.

And Courics wasting no time rolling out the first of her experts in the form of research professor/motivational speaker Brene Brown, whose new book, Daring Greatly, inspired Katie as she embarked on a daring new adventure of her own: launching Katie, Disney said Tuesday.

Sound familiar? Its right out of the Oprah Winfrey Playbook.

Speaking of Oprah, the former Queen of Daytime TV is once again the countrys highest-paid celebrity, Forbes magazine says, because she can take a $125million bath and still wind up with revenue of $165million, thanks in part to the revenue enjoyed by her Harpo Productions and those Oprahs Experts spinoff shows starring Dr. Phil, Rachael Ray and Dr. Oz.