NBC Prepares to Replace Ann Curry on ‘Today’

By BRIAN STELTER

 

Peter Kramer/NBCAnn Curry and Matt Lauer on the “Today” show.

June 20, 2012, 5:15 pm
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NBC executives are making a plan to replace Ann Curry on the “Today” show, only a year after she became the co-host of the newly vulnerable morning television franchise.
The planning — which is taking place in secret and has not been completed — is effectively an admission that all is not well at “Today,” the show that invented morning television 60 years ago and inspired countless lower-rated competitors since. “Today” consistently ranked No. 1 in the morning ratings until this spring, when ABC’s “Good Morning America” beat it in the ratings for several weeks.
Even before then, some at NBC were openly criticizing the co-hosting style of Ms. Curry, 55, who succeeded Meredith Vieira last year, after spending 14 years on the show in a lesser role. Questions about her future have circled the broadcast for months, as some staff members have placed the blame for the ratings woes on Ms. Curry and others have defended her.

An Update

NBC Made Contingency Plans, but Ann Curry Reports to Work

For a couple of hours on Wednesday, NBC News officials thought the show’s co-host would not be coming into work Thursday morning.

Several weeks ago, network officials and Ms. Curry began to discuss a different job for her, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations, who insisted on anonymity because the matter was confidential. Those discussions have continued and are expected to be completed before NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics begins in late July.
Ms. Curry, who has not had a television agent for years, has hired a well-known lawyer, Robert B. Barnett, to represent her in the negotiations, according to these people. It is unclear whether she has explicitly agreed to any arrangement that NBC has offered her in lieu of “Today.” But several people who know Ms. Curry say that she has been struggling with the idea of leaving the show for some time.
“She got her dream job, and she doesn’t want to let it go,” one of the people said. But Ms. Curry has also expressed dissatisfaction with “Today,” where her journalistic interests sometimes clash with morning television realities. Accordingly, she may be moved into a foreign correspondent role, reflecting her strengths in reporting from disasters both political, like the ethnic killings in Darfur, and natural, like the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Mr. Barnett represented Christiane Amanpour last winter when she was moved off the ABC News program “This Week” and into a foreign correspondent role for the network as well as an anchor role for CNN. Ms. Amanpour’s title at ABC now is “global affairs anchor.” Mr. Barnett has also worked with a number of NBC anchors and correspondents in the past.
At NBC, information about the talks with Ms. Curry is being closely held by Jim Bell, the executive producer of “Today;” Steve Capus, the president of NBC News; and Steve Burke, the chief executive of NBCUniversal, which is controlled by Comcast. A spokeswoman for NBC News said the network declined to comment.
NBC, a network that has for two decades prided itself on smooth talent transitions — at least until its vituperative public breakup with Conan O’Brien in 2010 — has not determined who will replace Ms. Curry on “Today.” The person most often mentioned, and who most often fills in when Ms. Curry is away, is Savannah Guthrie, the co-host of the show’s 9 a.m. hour.
Ms. Vieira, who is now a special correspondent for NBC News, has also been mentioned, though she has told friends that she will not return to the “Today” show full-time. The show’s news anchor, Natalie Morales, could also step into the co-host role.
NBC executives are well aware that whoever is chosen to sit next to Mr. Lauer risks being criticized by Ms. Curry’s fans, a situation that played out 20 years ago when Jane Pauley was replaced by Deborah Norville — who in turn was soon replaced by Katie Couric.
The negotiations between NBC and Ms. Curry come at a time when “Today” is battling day by day with “G.M.A.,” the longtime runner-up in the morning TV race. “G.M.A” defeated “Today” for a week in April, ending a 16-year winning streak, and on several other weeks since; for the full season to date, though, “Today” still leads by about 400,000 viewers, and by a similar amount in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that networks use to set ad rates.
The questions have been debated at the highest levels of NBCUniversal because “Today” is a profit center for the network, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising revenue each year.
Mr. Lauer has said that the ratings have put “Today” on notice. In early April, just before the win by “G.M.A.,” he renewed his contract at “Today,” putting to rest months of speculation about how badly the show would be damaged if he departed. Ms. Curry’s departure, similarly, could hurt “Today;” if viewers perceive that she was forced out, they may become alienated and literally turn it off as a result.
This concern, expressed repeatedly in the last six months, has slowed the process of replacing Ms. Curry, according to people at the network. But the process is now clearly under way, and executives in the television news industry believe that changes to Ms. Curry’s role on “Today” could be announced as early as next week.
The timing is delicate because in late July, NBC begins to broadcast the Summer Olympics; the “Today” show is part of the coverage, transplanting its studio to the host city.
“They feel real pressure to get it done by the Olympics,” one of the people with knowledge of the negotiations said. That way, “Today” can go to the Games with a complete, comfortable team of co-hosts. The Olympics-related shows typically get a big ratings bounce, just the sort of thing it needs to fend off “Good Morning America.”
Some at “G.M.A.” are happy to have the uncertainty about Ms. Curry linger, because they believe their show is benefiting from it. It is conventional wisdom in morning television that chemistry among hosts is a hugely important factor in viewers’ decisions about what to watch. It is also conventional wisdom that the “G.M.A.” cast now has the better chemistry.
Mr. Lauer and Ms. Curry notably lack the kind of on-camera rapport of Mr. Lauer with Ms. Vieira and, before her, with Ms. Couric. This month they’ve been apart almost as many mornings as they’ve been together; when “Today” went to London for the Queen’s Jubilee on June 4 and 5, Ms. Vieira sat in Ms. Curry’s place. In recent interviews, Mr. Lauer has described his relationship with Ms. Curry as a transition. In one, on CNN last month, he said she has “the biggest heart in broadcasting.”

Earlier Coverage of the ‘Today’ Show

‘GMA’ Appears to Nudge ‘Today’ From Top Spot After 16 Years
On Air, an Excited Matt Lauer Confirms His Plans