The news divisions at ABC and CBS both had turnovers at the top this spring. Both shows survived sexual misconduct scandals that led to the abrupt firings of Lauer and King’s partner, Charlie Rose. Guthrie at “Today” and Gayle King at “CBS This Morning” have both been in their roles since 2012. Robin Roberts has been a “Good Morning America” co-host since 2005, worked on the show for a decade before that, and viewers have seen her through the ups and downs of health worries. A big chunk of the cable news audience has drifted away for the same reason.Īll three morning shows boast deep experience onscreen with the personalities that serve as their centerpieces. This year in particular, people who had been obsessed with politics and COVID-19 in 2020 are likely seeking a break. “It’s death by a thousand cuts,” said Alice Sylvester, Spaeth’s colleague at Sequent Partners. Podcasts like “The Daily” have established themselves, and cable television offers opinionated alternatives. Where people once turned on their TVs to get a sense of what happened in the world overnight, now they can grab the smartphone on their bedside table. “Good Morning America” is down 29% during the same period. In 2000, during the height of the Katie Couric-Matt Lauer dynasty, the “Today” show was being seen by 7.2 million viewers a day, and less than half (3.3 million) were watching during the first three months of this year. Not all, perhaps not even most, of viewership erosion is due to the pandemic. “The idea of extending the brand makes so much sense because of the way live viewing is declining these days,” said Jim Spaeth, a principal in Sequent Partners, a media consultancy. The show is adding a new wrinkle next week: With anchor Tony Dokoupil out for maternity leave, Drew Barrymore and LeVar Burton will fill in as celebrity guest hosts during the 8 a.m. Two podcasts are attached to “CBS This Morning,” and the CBSN streaming service runs an abbreviated version of the show. Yet the assignment given to Leist, who used to produce “Today” each morning, speaks to the initiative’s importance to NBC News. The morning shows still have news potency, as witnessed by Guthrie’s interviews with Liz Cheney and Ellen DeGeneres this week. “You may wake up with them, but you’ll want to spend more time with them the rest of the day,” Leist said. Savannah Guthrie’s YouTube show boils interviews down to six minutes, Craig Melvin’s series “Dad’s Got This” spotlights fathers making a difference, Carson Daly’s “Mind Matters” talks about mental health issues. The show’s personalities are involved with podcasts, digital series, newsletters, even TikTok features. ![]() ![]() Leist is also spearheading an aggressive effort to make content available on a 24-hour “Today” streaming service that was launched in 2020 primarily for archived material. The show is more aggressively hawking material planned for upcoming days to give viewers an incentive for tuning in. each day that they can set their DVRs so they don’t miss anything. “Today” is subtly reaching out, reminding people who may be sleeping later at 8 a.m. That 25-to-54 age group is also the demographic used to set advertising rates, and the revenue from these shows is the engine that powers network news divisions. There’s more than a passing interest in whether or not those viewers resume their morning habit when it’s time to return to the office. In that age group, viewing dropped 22% between the first three months of 2020 and this year at “Today,” 24% at “Good Morning America” and 16% at “CBS This Morning,” the Nielsen company said. But for the morning shows, the loss hits hardest among viewers aged 25-to-54 - working people. Viewership is down at all three programs, although to be fair, it is for television in general. ![]() Yet who cares about the traffic and weather if you’re not leaving the house? Along with ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “CBS This Morning,” the pandemic has been rough on the traditional morning shows.įor generations of Americans, the shows have been habitual places to turn to for some news and a check of the traffic and weather as they got ready for work and hustled the kids off to school. It’s a survival strategy for “Today,” which celebrates the 70th anniversary of its first broadcast in January. NEW YORK (AP) - A recent job promotion came with what seems to be a counterintuitive mandate for NBC News senior vice president Libby Leist: Drum up interest in the “Today” show anytime other than the mornings.
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