Goodbye, Katie. Hello ... Meredith?

With Katie Couric set to announce as early as this morning her departure from NBC's ''Today" show to likely become the ''CBS Evening News" anchor, speculation has turned to who will replace her in the seat next to Matt Lauer on the lucrative morning broadcast.

Media reports pegged Meredith Vieira, cohost of ABC's ''The View" and host of the syndicated ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," as getting Couric's spot on ''Today."

It's a move industry observers are already applauding as a good strategy for maintaining the show, particularly given Vieira's previous experience as a CBS News ''60 Minutes" correspondent.

A representative for Vieira could not be reached for comment yesterday on whether she indeed got the offer and will accept.

''I think Meredith is the closest thing you can get to Katie Couric," said Ken Bode, a former NBC News correspondent who is now a professor of journalism at DePauw University in Indiana.

Bode, who knows both Couric and Vieira personally, described Vieira as ''very smart, very quick, and very congenial. She has three children, teenagers down to a 10- or 11-year-old. She lives the life of most American women. She has a history of being absolutely determined to balance family and professional life. She actually turned down an offer from another network morning show before."

Vieira is a native of Providence who attended Tufts University. She began her career at radio station WORC in Worcester in 1975 before moving to the anchor chair at WJAR-TV in Providence. She is married to the journalist Richard Cohen, who wrote ''Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness: A Reluctant Memoir" about his diagnosis of multiple sclerosis.

Bode, who is close friends with Cohen, said Cohen is supportive of whatever his wife wants to do. ''I know the one condition for Meredith is she has to be able to manage her family," Bode said. ''Now that her oldest boy is going to college, maybe this is the right time."

Couric's future plans are not expected to be confirmed today, but it has been widely reported that the journalist has been offered the chance to solo anchor the ''CBS Evening News." She would be the first woman on broadcast television to do so. (ABC's Elizabeth Vargas is currently doing it on ''World News Tonight," but only until her coanchor Bob Woodruff returns from medical leave.) Couric, who is under contract with NBC until next month, has steadfastly refused to comment on any negotiations.

With its star anchor gone, ''Today" will certainly go through an adjustment period, experts say. But industry consensus is that the first-place morning show, now 54 years old, will not suffer, especially given the popularity of its other personalities: Lauer, Ann Curry, and Al Roker.

''This is something that these kinds of shows always worry about, but it never makes very much difference," said Lawrence Lichty, a professor in the radio/television/film department at Northwestern University. ''When Bryant Gumbel left, everybody thought Matt Lauer was a lightweight. He's done well. Meredith is obviously very bright, and she has good reporting experience. . . . The 'Today' show will be fine."

''Today" weekend cohost Campbell Brown and MSNBC reporter Natalie Morales are other names that have circulated as possible successors to Couric. Bob Zelnick, a former ABC News correspondent who is now the chairman of the journalism department at Boston University, said he would prefer Brown. ''Of the three, I think Campbell is the best television journalist. She's a very good reporter and writer and a quick study. She understands how to deliver both serious and less serious news," he said.

Suzanne Ryan can be reached at sryan@globe.com.