Katie Couric To Interview Manti Te’o About Girlfriend Hoax

Katie Couric will be interviewing Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o on her syndicated talk show, Katie, Thursday.

Couric’s will be the first television interview with the 21-year-old since the dead girlfriend hoax broke last week. Te’o gave a two-hour off-camera interview with ESPN Friday night, saying that he was a victim and not a participant.

Te’o will appear with his parents, Brian and Ottilia, for the interview.

Couric beat out Oprah Winfrey and others to nab the second big “get” in terms of sports stories this year. Winfrey, however, had the first with her interview of Lance Armstrong last week. The interview pulled in 3.2 million viewers.

Last week, Deadspin broke a story that the supposed girlfriend of Te’o, a young woman named Lennay Kekua, never existed, and was just an elaborate hoax. Kekua had allegedly been in a car crash and later passed away from leukemia. Te’o also later came out and said that Kekua called him a couple of months later, saying that she had to fake her death in order to evade drug dealers. Once he heard from “Kekua,” he told his parents that he had been the victim of a prank.

In his off-camera interview with ESPN last week, Te’o said that the person suspected of being the mastermind of the hoax — a friend of Te’o named Ronaiah Tuiasoposo — had contacted him and told him that it was all a lie.

There was speculation that Te’o was in on the hoax, an accusation that he has vehemently denied over the past couple of days.

Will you be watching Katie Couric’s interview with Manti Te’o?