Today (American TV program)
Today is an American morning television show that airs weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television and in the world, and after years of broadcasting it is fifth on the list of longest-running American television series.
Originally a two-hour program airing weekdays from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., it expanded to Sundays in 1987 and Saturdays in 1992. The weekday broadcast expanded to three hours in 2000, and to four hours in 2007. Todays dominance was virtually unchallenged by the other networks until the late 1980s, when it was overtaken by ABC's Good Morning America.
Today retook the Nielsen TV ratings lead the week of December 11, 1995, and held onto that position for 852 consecutive weeks until the week of April 9, 2012, when Good Morning America topped it again. Today maintained its No. 2 status behind GMA from the summer of 2012 until it regained the lead in the aftermath of anchor Matt Lauer's departure in November 2017. In 2002, Today was ranked No. 17 on TV Guides 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
The entertainment magazine Variety reported the 2016 advertising revenue during the first two hours of the show was $508.8 million.
On July 15, 2020, NBC launched Today All Day, a 24-hour digital streaming extension of the program available through its website and Peacock.
History
Founding
The show's first broadcast aired on January 14, 1952, as the brainchild of television executive Sylvester “Pat” Weaver, who was then vice president of NBC. Weaver was president of the company from 1953 to 1956, during which time Todays late-night companion The Tonight Show premiered. In pre-production, the show's proposed working title was The Rise and Shine Revue. The show was first supervised by Jerome Alan Danzig.Today was the first program of its genre when it premiered with original host Dave Garroway. The program blended national news headlines, interviews with newsmakers, lifestyle features, other light news and gimmicks, and local news updates from the network's stations.
National availability of the program expanded gradually during the 1950s. As late as January 1955, the show was not yet carried in markets such as Denver; the network feed had not extended west of Omaha until the autumn of 1954. At that time, to reach the Mountain Time Zone, the signal was transmitted to the West Coast, kinescoped, and then distributed to affiliates in cities like Salt Lake City.
It has spawned several other shows of a similar type, including ABC's Good Morning America, and CBS' now-defunct The Early Show. In other countries, the format was copied – most notably in the United Kingdom with the BBC's BBC Breakfast and ITV's Good Morning Britain, and in Canada with Your Morning on CTV Television Network.
Scheduling history
When Today debuted, it was seen live only in the Eastern Time Zone and Central Time Zone, broadcasting for three hours each morning but seen for only two hours in each time zone. Since 1958, Today has only broadcast live on the Eastern Time Zone, and has been on broadcast delay for the five other U.S. time zones. Partly to accommodate host Dave Garroway's declining health, the program ceased live broadcasts in September 1959, opting instead to broadcast an edition taped the previous afternoon punctuated with live newscasts each half-hour. The experiment, which drew criticism from many sides, ended when John Chancellor succeeded Garroway in July 1961.Todays weekday version was a two-hour program for 48 years, airing from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in all time zones except for Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, until NBC expanded the program to three hours on October 2, 2000. A fourth hour was eventually added on September 10, 2007.
In August 2013, Today released a mobile app for smartphones and tablets.
Current weekday showtimes and arrangements
The program airs live in the Eastern Time Zone and on tape delay beginning at 7:00 a.m. in each of the remaining time zones. The remaining three feeds are frequently updated with minor fixes and repairs, and often, correspondents will tape updates that are then edited into the delayed feeds. NBC affiliates in some markets including in the east coast, such as WESH in Orlando, Florida, air the third and fourth hours of Today on tape delay to accommodate live syndicated programs airing at such times.When breaking news stories warrant, Today will produce a West Coast edition by broadcasting parts of the show live for viewers there. In such an event, the live portion does not typically go beyond the 7:00 a.m. half-hour or the bloc before the first set of advertisements. Once completed, the remaining blocs/segments taped from the East Coast edition will follow. Throughout the live segment, the presenters will explicitly make some reference to the show being live on the west coast from time to time until the tape-delayed segments resume.
In some instances, when an NBC News Special Report of breaking news or a live event occurs during the Today show time slot in the eastern time zone, the show's anchors will assume hosting responsibilities and the show will go live across all time zones until such time when the Special Report segment finishes. At that point, viewers outside the Eastern Time Zone will return to regularly scheduled programming.
Local cut-ins
During the first two hours of the program, local network affiliates are offered a four-minute window at 26 and 56 minutes past the hour to insert a local newsbreak and local advertisements. Certain NBC affiliates that produce an additional morning newscast for a sister station or digital subchannel may prerecord the local inserts aired during the first one to two hours of Today to focus production responsibilities on just one of their local channels.Satellite radio simulcast
Starting in June 2014, SiriusXM began simulcasting Today on a new channel called Today Show Radio, Channel 108, with The Best of Today starting at 6am and the Today Show's live broadcast from Studio 1A at Rockefeller Center in New York City starting at 7:00 a.m., with a tape delayed broadcast at beginning 7:00 a.m. Pacific time. On Tuesdays Off the Rails with Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer and Sheinelle Jones airs at 1:00 p.m.. On Wednesdays The Happy Hour with the producers of Jenna & Friends airs, and on Thursdays Today Show Confidential with the producers of TODAY airs. The channel also simulcasts NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas at 6:30 p.m. The Today Show Radio service is not currently available on SiriusXM's sister service in Canada and Channel 108 is locked out for Canadian subscribers.Studio
RCA Exhibition Hall (original studio)
The Today program first originated from the RCA Exhibition Hall on 49th Street in Manhattan in a space now occupied by the Christie's auction house, just down the block from the present-day studio. The first set placed a functional newsroom in the studio, which Garroway called "the nerve center of the world." The barrier between backstage and on-stage was virtually nonexistent. Garroway and the on-air staff often walked through the newsroom set. Glimpses of the camera crew and technicians were a frequent occurrence, as were off-screen voices conversing with Garroway. Gradually, machines and personnel were placed behind the scenes to assemble the news and weather reports, and the newsroom was gone by 1955.Studio 3K, Florida Showcase, Studio 8G, and Studio 3B
In the summer of 1958, television manufacturer Philco complained to NBC that staging Today in a studio explicitly called the RCA Exhibition Hall was unfair. The network bowed to the pressure, and on July 7, 1958, Today moved across the street to Studio 3K in the RCA Building, where it remained through the early 1960s.On July 9, 1962, the program returned to a street-side studio in the space then occupied by the Florida Showcase. Each day, the Today production crew would have to move the Florida-related tourism merchandise off the floor and wheel in the Today news set, desks, chairs and cameras. When the show wrapped at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, the news set would be put away and the tourism merchandise returned to the floor.
After three years in the Florida Showcase, Today moved back to the RCA Building on September 13, 1965. The network converted its news programming to all-color broadcasts at that time, and NBC could not justify allocating four color cameras to the Florida Showcase studio. For the next 20 years, the show occupied a series of studios on the third, sixth, and eighth floors of NBC's headquarters; most notably Studio 3K in the 1970s, Studio 8G in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and finally Studio 3B from 1983 to 1994.
Studio 1A
Today moved to the new street-side studio on June 20, 1994, providing a link to the show's 1950s origin.Since the debut of the 1990s set, the national morning news programs of each of the major broadcast and cable-news networks have moved street-side – including two of Todays Rockefeller Center neighbors, Fox News' Fox & Friends and CNN's since-cancelled American Morning. ABC's Good Morning America broadcasts from Times Square Studios, although only a portion of its studio is street side.
In 2006, Studio 1A underwent a major renovation to prepare for the upgrade to high-definition television broadcasts. After the departure of Katie Couric and while a new set was readied, the program was broadcast from a temporary outdoor studio in Rockefeller Plaza, the same set that NBC used at the Olympic Games since 2004. During the week of August 28, 2006, the show was moved to a temporary location outside of Studio 1A because MTV was converting the outdoor studio into their red carpet booth for the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards. A mock set was set up in Dateline NBCs studio, which was also used during inclement weather. The program also used a temporary outdoor set at NBC Studios, and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
On September 13, 2006, Today moved back into the revamped Studio 1A space. The new studio was divided into five different sections on the lower level including an interview area, the couch area, the news desk, the performance/interview/extra space area, and home base, which is where the anchors start the show. A gigantic Panasonic 103-inch plasma display monitor is often used for graphic display backgrounds. A kitchen set is located upstairs from the main studio. The blue background that is seen in the opening of the show in home base moves up and down to allow a view of the outside from the home base.
Some minor changes were implemented throughout the early and middle part of 2013, not only in the way that things are presented, but also with modified graphics and minor updates to the set. That year, a new, larger anchor desk was introduced with space to seat all four main anchors. The new desk brought an end to the "news desk", as the third "news reader" now sits at the main anchor desk. Other minor changes included a new larger desk for the third hour. After the August 16, 2013, broadcast, the program vacated Studio 1A, while the space underwent a remodeling with a more modern look with "a lot more bells and whistles to play with."
On September 16, 2013, Today debuted a new set and graphics package. The "home base" is located on a platform that can spin 360°, therefore allowing the view and direction of the camera to change depending on the half-hour. A new couch and background was added in the "sofa area". A social media area known as the "Orange Room", was also added to Studio 1A, which contains screens that display Twitter comments or trending topics, Carson Daly was hired to present segments from the room during the broadcast. Six screens that also connect to one 6' x 16' screen were added in the fashion/special topic area. During its first two days of use, the show transitioned away from its news and entertainment format to a format that emphasized the social interaction of the anchors, Roker and newsreader.
The graphics were also overhauled with introduction of the new set. The logo-to-peacock animation was moved from the left corner to the bottom right side corner of the screen. The logo that was first previewed on September 13, 2013, pared down the number of circular arches from five to three with its coloring switching from different variations – generally shades of red, orange and yellow to depict a sunrise – to entirely orange.
In September 2015 Today updated the set once again, the update included new floors, a new couch, and a new anchor desk. The new set retains the 360 home base used in the previous design. The new set replaced much of the dark wood colors with lighter colors and removed the emphasis of orange in previous design in favor of orange accents.
In February 2018, while Guthrie and Kotb were at the 2018 Winter Olympics, the studio underwent major changes including a new curved 40ft video wall and flooring in the former screen area as well as a large Today logo installation; and by November of the same year, the Orange Room got a minor change that included a triangular-pattern wall and wooden flooring. Then, in November 2020, ahead of Election Night coverage, a new large video wall was added in front of the Orange Room. This video wall is used primarily for the weather forecasts but also other pieces of the show.