​Meredith Vieira is on the cover of The Hollywood Reporter this week as part of the last big push ahead of her Sept. 8 daytime talk show debut.

And this ain’t your typical publicity story.

In a lengthy profile penned by Marisa Guthrie, Vieira lets loose a series of choice quotes and spills the beans on her past tenures at “Today,” “60 Minutes,” and “The View.”

The entire thing is worth a read, but here are five key quotes Viera shared with the mag:

1. “S**t happens. People make mistakes. We all do.” - Viera’s response to the Today’s Show troublesome transition to new hosts Ann Curry and then Savannah Guthrie following her departure from “Today” in 2011.

2. On her new daytime show: “I don’t know who’s even watching at 2 o’clock. They could be lying to me, but they’ve made it very clear that I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do. They backed off on a lot of things.”

3. Known as a passionate crusader against animal cruelty, she once saved a mouse at the ABC studio where “The View” taped: “To me, that was sadistic beyond anything, that you would promote your entire company with a mouse and then treat these animals with such cruelty. So I came upon one and I took him outside, trying to calm him, and I peeled his little feet off the thing. I think I may have peeled a little of his foot off too. But he made it. He scampered off.”

4. On turning down a big paycheck to stay on “Today”: “I think they thought, ‘She’s not going to leave, it’s too much money’—which is a real incentive. Then I realized if I’m sticking around for that, there’s something wrong. If you don’t feel like doing the job, especially a job that’s that hard on your life, why keep doing it? I like being well-paid. But that’s never my incentive for jobs.”

5. On whether she got advice from fellow “Today” and erstwhile daytime talk show host Katie Couric: “No, I don’t know what advice she’d want to give me, except maybe, ‘Run!’ “

Read More: The Hollywood Reporter

Brief Take: Every celebrity who gets a talk show does not make a point of talking authentically to the press, but Vieira does. Her openness alone could be the thing that sets her apart in daytime.

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