Loyal TV Squad readers will recall that Bob wrote a post yesterday that criticized the ever-annoying Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford for the lame "dirty secrets" they gave during the lighter-than-air fourth hour of Today that morning (they originally talked about "bad habits," which turned into a talk about "dirty secrets"). For those who care: Hoda doesn't wash her hair that often and Kathie Lee doesn't floss as much as she should. I know: scandalous, right?
Anyway, at the beginning of their first segment this morning, the hosts called Bob and TV Squad out on his post -- initially they said he "wrote in," as if Bob's sitting at his computer writing angry e-mails to the Today show staff -- and invited him to e-mail them his dirty secret:
Those combative ladies on The View have another bee floating around in their Marge Simpson size bonnets. This story, however, caused perhaps the most egregious and heated debate/clusterf#*$ of noise in the show's history.
Cookie Monster has been in "cookie rehab" of sorts for about three years now. The View ladies finally caught wind of it and went off on a three minute tear about it using voices that are normally reserved for members of WTO protests or people who are on fire.
How bad did it get? Elisabeth Hasselbeck was the "good cop."
Look, we have just about as good an idea as you as to what happens on the eleventh fourth hour of the Today show.Hoda Kotb (who won a Peabody Award) and Kathie Lee Gifford (who is loud) sit together, morning after morning, drinking, chatting, and generally swishing about in a televisual escapade that brings into the mix - among other things - Facebook, "cougars," breast cancer, and wine. Needless to say, we will be first in line when they invite a studio audience (although the appeal of hearing camera men laugh at Kathie Lee's menopausal delirium stands very well on its own).
Considering that we don't get to watch the show as often as we'd like, we very much appreciate being steered by The Soup toward a clip taken from a segment on Today called "I Got Played."
Seeing Brian Williams sitting next to Matt Lauer on Today was a bit disconcerting, wasn't it? I knew NBC was having some budget problems, but I didn't realize how thin of a bench they actually had. Williams subbed in for Meredith Vieira, but only stayed on the show for an hour, as I'd imagine he'd rather spend the 8:00 hour putting together tonight's Nightly News lineup than talk about ten ways to keep your car running or what Drew Peterson ate for breakfast.
Anyway, Williams was at times a bit too stuffy for the morning gig, but his famous sense of humor showed through a number of times, including the clips after the jump. The first one is a clip reel of some strangely homoerotic interplay between Williams and Lauer, which Al Roker called "a Whitman's Sampler of man candy." The second one is of Lauer, Williams, and Natalie Morales making their Oscar picks.
When I watch Today every morning, I wonder how some of the people that are standing in Rockefeller Plaza are able to bring signs that are blatant advertisements. I figured there was someone at the entrance to the taping area that would inspect each sign and reject ones that are inappropriate.
Turns out that's true, but Ad Age says that what's in the inappropriate category is less than you think. All the staff looks for is inappropriate language and readability. In fact, NBC doesn't seem to mind that a lot of companies are getting a ton of free advertising by asking people to bring signs and display them, hoping to get a lingering glance or even one of the hosts to come over and speak to someone reading the sign.
Willard Scott doesn't do much around the Today show these days; except for an occasional week where he subs for Al Roker, all the semi-retired weatherclown (hey, he was a clown once) really does is his periodic shout outs to the nation's centenarians.
But at this point, I'm starting to wonder if those centenarians are more with it than the man who's giving them the tributes.
Almost every time I've seen Scott lately, he seems to mumble his way through the birthdays. While he's always been known for wacky asides and nonsensical ad-libs, they seem to be getting wackier as time goes on. But worst of all, he often falls behind the rotating Smucker's jar graphic that serves up each centenarian's name, location and photo. I mean, if you're a guy who's survived 100 years, don't you at least deserve to not have your face smiling on national TV while the audience is being told that you love wearing frilly dresses to church?
This morning, as I watched the Today show, I noticed that they had "team coverage" of the big fire on the Universal Studios back lot. Not only did they have reporter Peter Alexander doing a live remote from the scene, but they decided to send Al Roker, who was in L.A. to tape Celebrity Family Feud, over there, as well. Matt Lauer called the fire "devastating," and Alexander went on to list all the sets that went up in smoke, including the town square from Back to the Future. Oh, and some of the video archives were destroyed, even though there are backups.
All of this was delivered in somber tones, as if this was like those wildfires that have enveloped that part of the country over the last few years. It made you wonder if anyone got hurt. Thankfully, no one did. So why the somber tone? Sure, these sets might have some sentimental value, but they're just fake storefronts. And why have a reporter there if Roker was already available? It makes you scratch your head until you realize that NBC and Universal are corporate siblings.
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 CancerStand 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.
Much has been said about Katie Couric and her year behind the anchor's desk on The CBS Evening News (some of it by Couric herself in a controversial New York interview). But now a journalist is going to interview Couric and she's going to talk about everything that's going on with her and with the news biz in general.
Veteran newsman Marvin Kalb is going to interview Couric as part of the Kalb Report Series, which is produced by George Washington University, Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center, and The National Press Club. The interview will take place live on stage next Tuesday at The National Press Club, in front of students and members of the NPC.
Are Today Show viewers - even the most loyal Today Show viewers - asking for a fourth hour of the show every single day?
Looks that way. As we reported earlier, NBC is going ahead with their plans for a fourth hour of the morning show, and Broadcasting & Cable is reporting that the hosts have been named: Ann Curry, Natalie Morales, and Hoda Kotb. Giada De Laurentis and Tiki Barber will be correspondents on the show.
I assume that NBC has done some sort of market research that pushes them in this direction, but as a viewer I'm kind of nauseated. Look at all that TV space that's being taken up by having four hours of Today on Monday through Friday (and another two hours each on Saturday and Sunday). Yikes.
What would the Fourth of July be without hot dogs, fireworks, and Blake's beatboxing? American Idol finalist Blake Lewis will be joining third place finisher Melinda Doolittle, as well as this year's reigning champ Jordin Sparks for Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular on NBC. The special will be hosted by Natalie Morales and Tiki Barber from NBC's Today Show. Country singer Martina McBride will also be on hand to perform "Anyway."
NBC says the fireworks display "will feature nearly 35,000 brilliant shells exploding over New York City" in the country's largest Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza. The one-hour Spectacular will be televised at 9PM from New York.
Longtime Dateline host Stone Phillips is being let go by the network, for money reasons. Phillips' current co-host, Ann Curry, will continue to do the show. I guess NBC wants someone in there who is already under contract and does other stuff at the network. Curry is the newsreader on The Today Show too. She'll be joined by various NBC reporters as rotating co-hosts.
No word on what Phillips will do now. I wonder why they didn't just keep him on and have him do other things at the network and MSNBC? Maybe he didn't want to, who knows.
Those combative ladies on The View have another bee floating around in their Marge Simpson size bonnets. This story, however, caused perhaps the most egregious and heated debate/clusterf#*$ of noise in the show's history. 
Look, we have just about as good an idea as you as to what happens on the 
Seeing Brian Williams sitting next to Matt Lauer on Today was a bit disconcerting, wasn't it? I knew NBC was having some budget problems, but I didn't realize how thin of a bench they actually had. Williams subbed in for Meredith Vieira, but only stayed on the show for an hour, as I'd imagine he'd rather spend the 8:00 hour putting together tonight's Nightly News lineup than talk about ten ways to keep your car running or what Drew Peterson ate for breakfast.
When I watch Today every morning, I wonder how some of the people that are standing in Rockefeller Plaza are able to bring signs that are blatant advertisements. I figured there was someone at the entrance to the taping area that would inspect each sign and reject ones that are inappropriate.
Willard Scott doesn't do much around the Today show these days; except for an occasional week where he subs for Al Roker, all the semi-retired weatherclown (hey, he was a clown once) really does is his periodic shout outs to the nation's centenarians.
This morning, as I watched the Today show, I noticed that they had "team coverage" of the big fire on the Universal Studios back lot. Not only did they have reporter Peter Alexander doing a live remote from the scene, but they decided to send Al Roker, who was in L.A. to tape Celebrity Family Feud, over there, as well. Matt Lauer called the fire "devastating," and Alexander went on to list all the sets that went up in smoke, including the town square from Back to the Future. Oh, and some of the video archives were destroyed, even though there are backups.
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?
Much has been said about Katie Couric and her year behind the anchor's desk on The CBS Evening News (some of it by Couric herself in a controversial New York interview). But now a journalist is going to interview Couric and she's going to talk about everything that's going on with her and with the news biz in general.
Do you remember the show Big Wave Dave's? 
Are Today Show viewers - even the most loyal Today Show viewers - asking for a fourth hour of the show every single day?
So Bob Barker is gone from The Price Is Right. Check out the Best Week Ever tribute to the silver fox. 
What would the Fourth of July be without hot dogs, fireworks, and Blake's beatboxing?
NBC is trying to save money everywhere.
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