Katie Couric On The Dating Scene And Her Brief Encounter With Jeff Probst

It always feels a bit strange when celebrities open up about their dating lives, but when it’s Katie Couric, everyone pays attention. The journalist and talkshow host apparently has quite an extensive little black book, featuring names like Larry Kind and Bob Saget, among others. Like any woman on the dating circuit, however, Couric has also had her fair share of unsuccessful dates. She told one such amusing story, with a cameo from Survivor host Jeff Probst, on Howard Stern’s radio show on Sirius FM. Let’s just say even stars can have the occasional odd encounter. "He had puka shells on," she recalled. "That was kind of a weird thing."

But, never one to take a hit lying down, Probst reportedly called into Us Weekly the next day to tell his side of the story and explain why there was never a second date. "Katie and I were set up by a mutual friend several years ago. In fact, I don't know if Katie remembers, but that same friend originally tried to set us up way back in 2001," he wrote. "I remember because we were filming Survivor in Kenya which is cool enough -- add to that a date with Katie Couric -- it had the makings of a pretty epic summer. But the timing never worked out and so we never met."

Apparently the romance was ill-fated from the onset. Still, Probst and Couric didn’t leave it at that, as he further explained. "What I remember most about the date is how nervous I was and how little I offered to the conversation," Probst recalled. "It was like I forgot how to go on a date. Like I was 14. We talked a bit about her kids and the challenges of being a parent to teenagers, and we talked a bit about our careers and lifestyles but we never got much beyond the surface."

According to Probst, it was all on him. He would have asked for a second date, the Surivor host recalls, but just felt too embarrassed to do it. Still, there are no hard feelings between the two, who are both currently in happy relationships. As for the gentlemen in Couric’s black book – there was just no chemistry with any of them. No hard feelings, guys.

It just wasn't meant to be between Couric and Probst.