Ann Curry's voice chokes when she talks about saying goodbye this morning on NBC's Today show, years earlier than she had hoped.

It's "going to be a bit of a tough day," she told USA TODAY in a 40-minute phone interview Wednesday, sounding as though she were fighting back tears. "I'm going to have to tell our viewers. That's what makes me more emotional than anything. I don't want to leave them. I love them. And I will really miss them."

After a year as co-host, and days of fevered speculation about her future, Curry steps down today from the high-profile post held in the past by the likes of Jane Pauley and Katie Couric.

Instead, Curry's new multiyear contract with NBC has her leading a seven-person unit with a ticket to cover the world's biggest stories, from the civil uprising in Syria to the plight of the poor in America. She'll produce network specials and pieces for NBC Nightly News, Dateline, Rock Center-- and Today-- and she'll occasionally fill in as anchor on Nightly News and elsewhere.

While she describes her new job as one that any journalist would crave, she makes no secret that the very public process that pushed her out of the co-host chair amid rumor-fed headlines has left wounds.

"I don't know who has been behind the leaks, but no question they've hurt deeply," she says. She admits she would have liked more time to work things out as co-host, and she bristles a bit at the suggestion that she lacked "chemistry" with co-host Matt Lauer.

"You know, Matt and I have had great on-air chemistry for 14 years, been part of the No. 1 winning team for a history-making number of years," she says. "That said, I just finished my freshman year as co-host. In every single co-host's first year, there have been kinks to be worked out, and perhaps I deserve as much blame for that as anyone."

Does she think she was given enough time to work out those kinks? "No, I do not," she says flatly.

Would she have liked more time? "Oh, sure I would have," she says.

SOURCE: USA Today

Susan Page