Posted on 04/25/2005 4:47:30 AM PDT by syriacus
Something has to be very wrong with NBC's "Today" if viewers are turning to ABC's Diane Sawyer as a refreshingly wholesome, down-to-earth alternative.
For more than a decade Katie Couric has reigned as the Everywoman of morning television. NBC considered her so critical to restoring the pre-eminence of "Today" after the disaster known as Deborah Norville that in 2001 the network gave her a $60 million contract over 4 ½ years to keep her from defecting. Inevitably, Couric's on-air persona changed, along with her appearance and pay scale. But lately her image has grown downright scary: America's girl next door has morphed into the mercurial diva down the hall. At the first sound of her peremptory voice and clickety stiletto heels, people dart behind doors and douse the lights.
Or, at least, change the channel. At its height, "Today" had 2 million more viewers than ABC's "Good Morning America." Now NBC's most profitable program may be in danger of falling behind: for the first time in years, the gap between "Today" and "Good Morning America" recently narrowed to just 270,000 viewers.
The strained chemistry between Couric and her colleagues - Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Ann Curry - could be one reason. But network karma is also to blame. After years of dominance, NBC is trailing in fourth place, while ABC is suddenly sparkling with hot new shows and momentum. "Good Morning America" parades the stars of "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" in front of its viewers. The "Today" audience has to brace itself for yet another interview with a fired contestant from "The Apprentice."
Panic has set in at Rockefeller Center. Last week NBC dismissed the executive producer of "Today," Tom Touchet, and replaced him with a sports producer, Jim Bell, the program's fourth impresario since 2001. It gets worse: NBC also fired a longtime contributor, style and fashion expert, Steven Cojocaru, three weeks after he underwent a kidney transplant.
Cojocaru said he was banished because he agreed to give an interview to Oprah Winfrey, a competitor. "I wasn't just fired, I was dumped," Cojocaru told Winfrey on her show on Thursday. (An NBC spokeswoman said that his was a one-sided view of the matter, but that the network "wishes him the best.")
"Today" certainly seems chillier than usual about the competition. It reported on Friday that a Las Vegas woman was arrested last week on attempted-larceny charges after complaining in March that she found a human finger in chili from a California Wendy's. Recalling the instant reaction to the story, the NBC report haughtily noted that "some media jumped on it," and showed a clip of the woman being interviewed on "Good Morning America."
Neal Shapiro, the president of NBC News, said last week that "Today" "didn't sparkle enough," adding that NBC would "find new ways" to show off its anchors.
That was the most worrisome news of all. If anything, the problem with "Today" is that it sparkles and shows off too much.
Viewers - and most of them are women - like Couric's cheeky, easygoing manner; affection grew into admiration after her husband died of colon cancer in 1998 and Couric made early detection her cause. (In 2000, she underwent a colonoscopy on the program.)
But "Today" has turned her popularity into a Marxist-style cult of personality. "Today" hit a low point in July, when Saddam Hussein appeared in a Baghdad courtroom to hear the charges he will face when he goes to trial as a war criminal.
All the networks interrupted their programming to show live images of Saddam - all except NBC. "Today" stayed on Couric swatting shuttlecocks with the U.S. Olympic badminton team.
NBC executives seem to think that viewers have grown bored with "Today" and want more gimmicks and pizazz. But if that were true, they wouldn't be switching to ABC. Sawyer's appeal on "Good Morning America" is not that she is new and exciting, but that she is a consistently smooth, even restful, presence.
Her golden good looks never change, and she handles interviews and chatter with her genial co-host Charles Gibson with a poised, creamy insincerity that never varies or falters.
Couric made her mark in television by being natural and unaffected, but nobody can stay that way in that job for long. "Today" might be better served by easing its anchor-centric style and giving its stars and viewers a bit of a break.
Time for another colon operation ?
80 IQ Katie isn't smart enough to be a diva. She's just some perky dumb chick who gets grouchy.
NYT actually wasn't very complimentary to Katie now, were they ?
FYI........Truth from an unlikely source!
Katie is a brat, period.
Do they realize how close they came to the truth here?
time to release her from her contract??
they have let other reporters go for much less.
This nation is shifting. There is a realignment.
As the audience moves right, Katie moves left.
They waive third basemen, don't they?
What a great discription - works for Dianne; even better for Paula Zahn. . .
Just the beginning. The rats are fighting for the high ground on the sinking MSM ship.
I'm sure most of us remember getting told by our Mother "you're getting too big for your britches" when we got out of hand. I believe Katie has fulfilled that old cliche.
This smells to me like a hit piece on Katie. My guess is that someone high up in the Today Show management fed Stanley the inside poop because they 1) don't like Katie and/or 2) they are afraid of the direction things are going. At any rate, great job, Alessandra.
Horsewoman is as arrogant as they come. Another liberal elite who thinks she knows what is best for America (and it isn't Christian or American culture).
Don't you love it when you get to so publicly see the wheels come off of something that truly deserves to have its wheels come off? (*Snicker*)
It's tough when you are Little Miss Perfect and people just don't seem to love you like they should.
Deborah Norville is a babe. Katie Couric is... well, crusty.
I'd rather look at Diane any day than perky little Katie. I don't know what anyone sees in her.
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