‘Today’ Boss Mum On Reported Anchor Shakeup
UPDATE, 4:15 PM: The NY Times is now reporting that Curry will announce her departure from the show tomorrow morning. It did not say whether Thursday will also be her last day.
PREVIOUS, 12:18 PM: Jim Bell is executive producer of NBC’s Today show and also of NBC’s Olympics coverage. He wore his latter hat this morning in a conference call with reporters about NBCUniversal’s plans for the London Summer Games next month. But he did get a question about how he’s dealing with the turmoil at the morning show, which includes Ann Curry reportedly near to being replaced as co-anchor by current third-hour anchor Savannah Guthrie. “[The Olympics and Today] are great brands but have had ups and downs,” Bell said on the call, before adding that discussing the morning show “isn’t the purpose of this call”. Last week, reports surfaced that NBC execs are negotiating in secret on plans to replace Curry with Guthrie — this after the show saw its streak of ratings wins come to an end after 852 weeks. Curry succeeded Meredith Vieira last year. Today, the NY Times reported that Guthrie was officially offered the co-host gig and is Bell’s top choice. Broadcasting & Cable reported that an informal poll of NBC affiliates revealed that they too are being kept in the dark about Today‘s plans — though a preference for Curry to return to her hard-news roots and a lack of chemistry between Curry and co-host Matt Lauer were noted by some station GMs questioned. ”The thing we look for in television is chemistry, chemistry, chemistry,” one East Coast GM told B&C. “We just don’t have that [with Matt and Ann].”
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