Overview: The Today Show

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The Bottom Line

The Today Show is the second-longest program in television history, beat only by Meet The Press. As such, it has been arguably the most popular and well-known morning news and talk show for decades.

Pros

• Timely and relevant
• Groundbreaking in the genre

Cons

• Only highlights issues
• Long at three hours

Description

• Airs weekly at 7 a.m. EST on NBC.
• Former The View co-host Meredith Vieira joins the show in September, replacing Katie Couric.
  

• The show broadcasts from Studio 1A in Rockefeller Center, New York City.
• During summer 2006, the show is broadcast from an outdoor studio.
• An audience gathers outside the studio to peer through the glass windows into the set.
• Possibly the most unique ?host? of The Today Show is J. Fred Muggs. Muggs was a chimpanzee.
• In September 2006, the show will be broadcast in HDTV.

Guide Review - Overview: The Today Show

Of the three network morning programs, The Today Show remains the best of the bunch, always timely, always entertaining and with the best production values. Other shows, such as Good Morning America, often copy The Today Show?s format, such as a live audience outside the studio and live outdoor concerts.

Today?s format flows much the way a newspaper might, with national and world news reports and interviews up front in the first hour, with lighter human interest and entertainment news following in the later hours. The show features regular, usually annual, popular features such as ?A Today Wedding,? in which the program follows a young couple through their nuptials, with viewers selecting by vote items for the wedding, from the dress to the music.

Since its inception in 1952, The Today Show has featured a number of popular hosts. The first was Dave Garroway, followed by notable hosts John Chancellor, Hugh Downs, Barbara Walters, Tom Brokaw, Willard Scott, Jane Pauley, Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric. Current hosts include Matt Lauer, Ann Curry and Al Roker. (A weekend edition of the show features Lester Holt and Campbell Brown.)