"She's cute, lovable, everybody's dream daughter-in-law or aunt, plus she's attractive and intelligent." This description by the Washington Post's Tom Read sums up what millions of viewers in America think of 44 year-old Katie Couric.

For the past decade, she has hosted the most popular morning TV show in America. When she first joined NBC's Today show 10 years ago, its ratings were floundering. But for the past six years, it has been the most popular morning programme, largely due to Couric's popular personality.

The sweetheart of the NBC network

Her contract expires in May and TV executives are jumping through hoops to either keep her or poach her. NBC has reportedly offered her more than $10 million a year for three years, almost $3 million more than Dan Rather, CBS's nightly news host and American institution.

Representatives from virtually every media giant have been paying homage at the Couric court. Steven Spielberg, for example, trying to tempt her to his DreamWorks company, showed up with a video, reportedly shot for $100,000 that featured extras waving "We love you Katie" placards.

As one competitor put it, "People have been throwing the kitchen sink at her."

Katie Couric's contract negotiations have come at a very advantageous time. The media conglomerates that own the major US networks have woken up to the fact that changing lifestyles and the resultant heightened interest from advertisers have made the morning one of the few growth areas in television.

The offers have been pouring in

It also provides far fewer of the diversions that nibble away at the networks' audiences, such as cable movies and the internet. The Today show rakes in $250 million dollars a year for NBC, yet there is reported to be "unbridled panic" there.

Audience figures for the rival ABC show "Good Morning America" are rapidly catching up. Many observers believe the events of 11 September have spurred a desire for the slightly harder news that ABC offers in the mornings.

CNN have cottoned on too. They have enticed former CBS and Fox News anchor, Paula Zahn, to front a new morning programme. The celebrity factor is so important. ABC's Diane Sawyer, wife of the film director Mike Nicholls, is threatening Couric's pre-eminence.

Yet Katie Couric's popularity remains high. When her husband died of colon cancer in 1998, the whole nation grieved with her.

Her influence was there to see when, in 2000, campaigning for Americans to take regular colonoscopies, she underwent her own on-air. As a result, her newly-launched National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, raised more than $10 million in a few weeks.

Though Katie Couric's main appeal is her folksy down-home manner, her background enables her to be adept at handling harder news should Today decide to change its strategy.

A native of Washington DC, politics is in her blood. Her elder sister, Emily, went on to become a senator for Virginia. Tragically, this October, she also died of cancer.

People have been throwing the kitchen sink at her

A competitor

After graduating from the University of Virginia, Katie became a desk assistant at the ABC News bureau in Washington, an assignment editor at CNN and won awards for her reporting for NBC's Washington affiliate.

Her critically acclaimed interview with the father of one of the victims of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 made national headlines, and she has not been afraid to put difficult questions to successive US presidents.

When the American Airlines plane crashed in New York in November, sparking fears of another terrorist attack, NBC decided to keep Couric on air, even though their heavyweight veteran presenter Tom Brokaw had rushed to the studio.

Couric is sitting pretty when it comes to future employment

NBC are desperate to keep her. Guaranteeing her the job of being Brokaw's replacement as anchor of NBC Nightly News has been talked of as an option.

A new contract might include a daytime talk-show in the style of Oprah. NBC could agree to fund a production company for Couric that would sell shows to the network, with Couric retaining ownership and a large share of the profits.

Whatever the outcome, securing the services of Katie Couric, the "sweetheart of the network" will not come cheap.