Vieira fades from ‘View’

Meredith Vieira’s throat is her Achilles’ heel – and it’s been failing.

Over the weekend, as she began thinking hard about her last week on ABC’s daytime hit “The View,” her throat started to grow hoarse.

“It’s just really sinking in that there’s a finite number of shows left and then I’m gone,” Vieira says.

“I was here at the very beginning. I certainly don’t take credit for the show’s success, but I was part of it. And it’s hard to say goodbye. You don’t have many of these situations.”

Vieira’s last day is Friday. Then, on Sept. 13, she’ll replace Katie Couric on NBC’s “Today,” while Rosie O’Donnell will take her place on “The View.”

The throat goes because of stress, she says, and because she’s got a fear of failure – and a fear of success.

The failure part, anyone could understand. But fearing success?

“I’ve always been worried about that,” she says. “What success can do to you, and letting it monopolize you. I’m circumspect about what I do.”

Vieira, by any measure, has been a success. New York City viewers recall her time in the early ‘80s on the local CBS affiliate, where she was a standout reporter. From there, she moved to CBS News and the newsmagazines “60 Minutes” and “West 57th.”

She worked at ABC and ABC News before starting on “The View” in 1997. She’s since taken the hosting job at “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” a gig she’ll keep while doing “Today.”

“I don’t know if it has to do with the jobs per se,” she says, when asked how to measure success. “I’ve been successful in marriage with Richard (Cohen) and raising the three kids.”

Vieira’s farewell has been billed as a roast, not a weepy look back. Promos for the goodbye poke fun at her, noting she’ll miss her co-hosts – Joy Behar, Star Jones Reynolds, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters – more than they’ll miss her.

They also joke that going to “Today” isn’t so hot, because she’ll be seeing Al Roker without hair and makeup.

Despite the levity, Vieira is concerned about breaking down on the air.

“I’m worried about really losing it in a very public fashion,” she says. “I thought I’d be fairly cool right now. But I feel myself welling up constantly. It’s part of me, it’s who I am. I am an emotional person. I just don’t want to be a basket case.”

Not what you’d expect from a woman who over the years has talked about everything from war to women’s wear – and even had her own breast-baring “wardrobe malfunction,” long before the term was cool, during a 1999 segment modeling prom dresses.

She can’t pick highlights and lowlights of her time on “The View,” she says, noting that it’s the people who stick out.

“It’s really the cumulative effect on me, my life,” she says. “Going in every day, with very strong-willed women. We hold the safety net for each other. We’ve allowed ourselves to be ourselves and to be part of the show.”

Though she’s still having jitters about leaving, her son Gabe is planning to golf with Matt Lauer, daughter Lily wants tickets to “Saturday Night Live” and son Ben wants to work on the Olympics.

“They think I’m crazy now, second-guessing the decision,” she says. “They’re so sure it’s the right thing.”

Her new colleagues at “Today” have gone out of their way to make her feel welcome and comfortable, Vieira adds.

She expects there will be some rehearsals before she starts on “Today,” if only because they’re revamping the studio.

Until then, she’ll spend the summer at home.

“I don’t want to get away,” she says. “I just want to be in our home. I need to feel grounded right now. I’ve got a lot of tension, a lot of nervousness. I need to be at home with the dog, the cats, the kids and my husband.”