TVSquad

If you watched the network morning shows this morning, you've seen the shocking sight of the Big Three evening news anchors -- Brian Williams, Katie Couric, and Charlie Gibson -- appearing on each show ... together! Gasp! How can that happen? Don't the networks have contract clauses and armies of lawyers to prevent these things from happening?

Well, I guess the lawyers tend to stay home when a good cause is involved. The anchors went on the news shows this morning to announce a cross-network telethon called Stand Up for Cancer Stand Up To Cancer, which will air on NBC, CBS, and ABC on September 5. The one-hour show will have musical performances and testimonials from all three anchors about the need for furthering cancer research (remember Couric's husband and sister both died from various forms of the disease). Money raised by the telethon will go to a number of organizations and research groups.

Mark your calendars kids, or not, Meredith Vieira is heading back to The View, for one day anyway, on October 8th. She'll be there to promote her Who Wants To Be A Millionaire game show and a DVD game that is coming out based on the show. I always seem to forget that she even does that because, man, I just don't get the attraction to Millionaire. It's just so dang slow. How that show made it while Beat The Geeks disappeared just boggles me.

Anyway, I suspect it will be all warm and fuzzy with a lot of palms getting sore as the whole group pats each other on the back for all the wonderfulness they are all putting out in the world, or something like that. An entirely different vibe than what we would get if this headline was Rosie returning to the view. Or even Star Jones, for that matter.

There is a Chinese proverb that says, "If you sit by an inkwell, you'll get dirty." It certainly seems that even if you are slightly involved with the juggernaut that is Idol, you will achieve great fame overnight.

Ashley is the latest person to receive this kind of peripheral American Idol fame. The last person I can think of that enjoyed a similar amount of success is William Hung.

Yesterday, little Ashley made her national pop culture icon debut on The Today Show with Meredith Vieira and elaborates why being such a "Fanjaya" brings her to tears.

The best part of the interview is when Meredith attributes Sanjaya's survival on the show to her devotion to the contestant. The girl turns out to be way smarter than her deluded mother, and says she doesn't think so but is instantly refuted by her Mom.

I smell a stage mom. Sheesh. Get your own passion for your own Idol.

I like Meredith Vieira. I really, really do. I've heaped praise upon her in this space in the past, and I'm sure that I'm going to heap more praise on her in the future. But she completely dropped the ball on the Today show this morning when she interviewed the three climbers that were rescued from Mt. Hood a couple of days ago. She asked them a lot of questions about how they survived, and how their dog Velvet helped them stay warm. But she didn't ask the one question I'm sure every non-hiker in the country was curious about:

What the hell were they doing up there on the mountain to begin with?

"Dance Dance Resolution": Man. All that talk about disappointing Davey Crockett really broke my heart. And all that talk about Wicked made my inner theatre geek laugh... and my inner normal civilian cry a little bit for the state of our Congress. Did a cell phone really go off at the end of that guy's speech? If so... Wow.

Or maybe America isn't asking why. If the ratings are there, then they must be watching. But I have to wonder: what the hell do these people do that they are watching so many hours of The Today Show in the morning? I mean, I work from home and write about TV, and even I can't imagine having any interest in it. Though I guess I'm not the demographic they're shooting for.

But it's probably coming in 2007. Matt and Meredith won't host it though, and neither would Al or Ann. It would probably go to Access Hollywood's Billy Bush and maybe a co-anchor.

If they actually do a fourth hour of the show, I really hope they have more celebrity interviews! And cooking demonstations! And maybe makeup tips and fashion segments!

Meredith Vieira has been on the Today show for almost three months now. And, I don't know what you folks think, but to me it looks like the show has barely skipped a beat. We all knew that Vieira was a pro with an easygoing, self-effacing manner and a good ability to deal with hard news as well as soft subjects. But it seems like, since she replaced Katie Couric, the show has been clicking along without much disruption.

Jim Bell, the show's executive producer, feels the same way, as he told David Bauder of the AP. "It's been too smooth. It's been too good. As great a story as it has been for us, it's just been seamless and that may be why it hasn't drawn as much attention."

Interesting piece over at Seed magazine. A Boston University researcher decided to try out for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and used his training in learning, memory, and decision-making to win $500,000.

Ogi Ogas describes his thought process for each question he got, and how he got the answer that he chose for each question. How he would use bits and pieces of knowledge and what he knew was right about an answer to put together the pieces that would give him the final answer, like a memory detective. There's also a bit of intuition involved, as with the question of the first produce that Sears sold in its catalog. Ogas had no idea what the answer was, but for some reason, immediately, "watches" came into his mind. Was it some sort of information that he had read quickly once and had been stored in his memory bank? I wonder if intuition isn't pure intuition at all, but a decision we come to from what we've learned in the past and stored. I'm not sure if this explains why I can't remember to pay certain bills every single month but I remember the Bionic Woman's telephone number (555-2368), but it's fascinating.

Of course, if various aspects of memory and learning are the keys to winning Millionaire, I guess luck and a lack of greed is the secret to winning Deal Or No Deal.

Jeez alou, everyone's blogging these days. And it seems like NBC News is at the forefront of making sure all their to stars blog about the "inside scoop" on their shows. It started with "The Daily Nightly", where Brian Williams and others blog about the machinations of putting together a nightly newscast. Now, NBC-owned site iVillage has started a blog written by none other than new Today anchor Meredith Vieira, which they're calling "Meredith Today" (clever, huh?). Right now, there's only two entries: an intro entry where she talks about the Pennsylvania school shooting earlier this week, and there's a new piece about her first reporting assignment in years (she went to Colorado to talk to the family of the girl killed in a school shooting last week).

Not sure if I'll ever read this (I don't read "The Daily Nightly," even though I think I should), but at least we know Meredith will not be shy about holding back in this blog, judging by her nine years on The View. It might be a great read, or it might be a train wreck; either way, it'll be pretty fascinating to keep track of.

[via Pop Candy]

Last week, when the new, Meredith Vieira-hosted Today Show debuted with a brand new set, I think I compared it to a Lifetime talk show set. But the people over at Page Six quote an NBC insider who describes it as "a hospital wing." And that's a great description too.

The insider says that Matt and Meredith and the gang really hate the new set and they want it changed. I agree. I watched it again this morning and the set looks completely ridiculous. The back wall is too close, it's too yellow, and it just looks the whole show look cheap. I would have loved to have been in the room when the decision was made: "hey, what if we go with cramped and yellow?"

No, you haven't tuned into the alternate universe version of TV Squad. What you are seeing here is true blue. According to Extra, Rosie O'Donnell has been named as the replacement for Meredith Riviera on ABC's The View. Meredith is replacing Katie Couric on NBC's Today show when Katie moves to anchor the CBS Evening News this summer. Rosie was on the short list of candidates that included Connie Chung, Patricia Heaton from Everybody Loves Raymond and current CNN American Morning anchor Soledad O'Brien.

ABC will make the official announcement on Friday, April 28th. From 1996-2001 O'Donnell hosted her own syndicated daytime talk show that was a critical and popular success. She is currently executive producer of The Big Gay Show, a comedy sketch show that will appear on the Logo network.

[via Zap2It -- thanks Anthony!]

Last week, dear brother Joel (really, he's my brother, except I'm prettier) asked you, the beautiful TV Squad readers, if Meredith Vieira could be taken seriously as both the host of both Who Wants to be a Millionaire and Today. Some of you said there was no problem with Vieira's credibility; others said it should be one or the other.

Well, folks, lovely Meredith is not the first person to do double-duty as both a game show host and a news personality. As Joel stated in his post, Joe Garagiola hosted and was a panelist on a number of game shows while on Today. However, he is a recent example. Truth be known, during the early days of television news people regularly double-dipped between one format and another without a complaint.

 

With the announcement that she will take Katie Couric's place on NBC's Today show, Meredith Vieira becomes one of those rare personalities who has been employeed by all three major networks; ABC, CBS and NBC.

Vieira began her career in the newsroom of WCBS-TV in New York City. From there, she moved onto the network level as a reporter for the CBS Evening News and a contributor to newsmagazines 60 Minutes and West 57th Street. After a long stint at CBS Meredith moved to ABC as a reporter, but eventually changed careers and became one of the hosts on The View starting in 1997 (Good Lord! That show has been on for almost 10 years now!). 

There are others who have jumped networks. For example, Brian Williams of NBC Nightly News was also on WCBS-TV in the late 80's and early 1990's before moving to NBC in 1993. Former 20/20 partners Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters both began their careers with NBC and then moved to ABC.

This afternoon, NBC will officially announce the news that everybody already knows: Meredith Vieira is the next co-host of Today. Katie Couric will leave NBC in May to anchor the CBS Evening News (something that doesn't have Andy Rooney all that thrilled). Vieira has long been rumored to be in talks with NBC for the position. Although most of us know Meredith Vieira as the least annoying co-host of The View and as host of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, she also has an extensive news background. I imagine that NBC considers her the perfect replacement since she's already a television 'personality' but she actually has experience as a journalist.

I wonder how Anne Curry feels about all this. She has filled in a lot for Katie and has gained a much larger role than just a news reader on Today. For a while there, she almost looked like the 'heir apparent'.

Sound off, readers! What do you think about Meredith Vieira??