Katie cuts up

Later in the night, the cheerleader emerged: "How we feeling, everybody?" she asked during a break, clapping her hands enthusiastically. "Whoo! I'm such a nerd, I'm sorry. I have to do something to keep myself fired up."

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Retort to Shearer

The YouTube channel was largely Couric's idea, in part a reaction to the pirated videos of her that turned up in recent months on comedian Harry Shearer's site, My Damn Channel, according to people familiar with the project. One of those videos, which shows Couric joking with producers between live shots on New Hampshire primary night, has been viewed more than 1.4 million times.

"We thought, why let him put stuff out there when we can do it ourselves," said one producer involved with the YouTube channel.

In her opening video, Couric joked, "It's nice to be on YouTube for a change when I know the cameras are rolling. Harry Shearer, I'm going to get you!"

She promised to post outtakes and "funny moments" on the site, calling it "sort of America's Funniest Home Videos -- our version, if you will."

But Couric's YouTube channel has garnered little notice, perhaps because neither she nor CBS News has done anything to promote it. There's no link for it on CBSNews.com. So far, the channel has logged about 19,000 views (though individual clips have separately gotten more traffic).

Network executives said the videos -- shot by Couric and a few producers, mostly on a hand-held flip camera -- are meant to be spread virally.

"You don't need to over-promote this," said Bob Peterson, CBS News' creative director, who edits some of the pieces. "It should be organic -- work with it and let it grow."

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Singing and joking

Those who have stumbled onto the site have been treated to a window into the anchor's busy social calendar. There are glimpses of her singing a duet with Bette Midler for an environmental fundraiser, reading poetry with Meryl Streep and attending a lively Manhattan book party.

The videos also offer hints of the rarefied atmosphere Couric occupies: the coterie of female aides packed in her SUV that she jokingly calls "my posse," a massive Andy Warhol-style painting of her face that dominates her office.

Most of all, the footage spotlights the irreverence that won Couric so many fans on "Today."

In one clip, she followed an interview with Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. about Afghanistan with a YouTube recommendation: “Lucky’s Funeral," in which a young girl earnestly gives her dead goldfish a toilet burial.