The Today Show became the longest-running daily program on television and a major showcase for news on
broadcasting’s first network, NBC. It was continuously seen
in NBC’s 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. weekday time period from its
first broadcast on January 14, 1952. The program was conceived by NBC television’s first president, Sylvester “Pat”
Weaver, when network TV was in only its fourth year. Most
early television was limited to nighttime hours. Stations did
not “sign on” until the afternoon. Today opened the morning period. Starting at 7 a.m., news, interviews, and light
entertainment were cycled every thirty minutes. Viewers
became accustomed to watching a segment of Today before
leaving for work or school. As Today progressed through
numerous producers, hosts, and contributors, its format has
not changed.
Today helped to inspire many non-entertainment daytime television program, from cooking instruction to talk
shows. Yet unlike other daytime programs, Today was
defined as a news broadcast, although entertainment and
news about entertainment were featured prominently during the show’s two hours. The program was produced
by the NBC news division. Most of NBC’s best-known
correspondents and news anchors, including John Chancellor, Frank McGee, Jessica Savitch, and Tom Brokaw,
served as “Today Show” hosts. In 1976, Barbara Walters
left the Today Show to become co-anchor of ABC Evening
News, with Harry Reasoner. In 2006, Today Show host
Katie Couric moved to CBS to anchor its evening news
program.
Today also was significant for bringing women into
television. In 1953, female guest hosts were added to the
program’s all-male on-air team. Some of the first women
seen on TV in a public affairs setting were author Joyce
Brothers, consumer expert Betty Furness, and numerous
entertainers including Estelle Parsons, Helen O’Connell,
and Betsy Palmer. This rotating arrangement continued
until 1964 when Barbara Walters was given a permanent
Today Show role.
The program contributed as a news source as a day’s
first account of national and world events. Newscasts
began and ended each half-hour segment. Benefiting
Today were NBC correspondents and facilities all over
the world. News on Today was most prominent during
developing major national and international stories such
as the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 and the Iran Hostage
Crisis in 1980. Viewers who had been asleep had tuned to
Today for overnight developments. Many people watched
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, unfold live on
the Today Show.
Today was launched in 1952 with Chicago TV personality Dave Garroway as host. Sports announcer Jack Lescoulie also appeared. A chimpanzee named J. Fred Muggs
brought comic relief. Each half-hour cycle opened with
a live camera view of crowds on the street at NBC headquarters in New York’s Rockefeller Center. Helped by the
chimp, Garroway and Lescoulie gave Today its relaxed yet
serious style. John Chancellor succeeded Garroway in 1961.
When Chancellor became an NBC foreign correspondent
in 1962, announcer Hugh Downs advanced.
Today reached its largest audiences in the 1960s and
early 1970s with Downs and Walters as co-hosts. In 1967,
sport wit Joe Garagiola became a third member of the
team. Audiences savored Walters’s revealing interviews
with entertainers and world leaders. It was on Today that
most Americans saw the first scenes of overnight violence
that in the 1960s had rocked major cities. Because night had
reached Asia, viewers awoke to each day’s news from the
Vietnam War. In addition, Today joined with NBC News
in televising the feats of John Glenn and other early astronauts. The first space missions were morning events. Today
won Emmy Awards in 1966, 1968, and 1970.
The program’s continued to flourish in 1971 after
Downs was hired by ABC News. Joining Walters and
Garagiola was Frank McGee, one of NBC’s most popular
news figures. In 1972, Today provided some of the first
scenes inside the People’s Republic of China. A Today
crew was selected to accompany President Richard Nixon
during Nixon’s historic visits with Mao Tse-tung and Chou
En-lai.
Fortunes changed in 1976. As noted, Walters followed
Downs to ABC. On ABC’s 20/20, Downs and Walters
would team for twenty more years. More ominous for
Today was ABC’s 1976 launch of a rival program called
Good Morning America. A new Today team of Brokaw and
Jane Pauley could not stop a loss of viewers to ABC. Good
Morning America was produced by ABC’s entertainment
division and hosted by Hollywood actor David Hartman.
In 1977, NBC briefly experimented with an all-female
team of Pauley and Jessica Savitch. During the 1980s and
1990s, as ratings still tumbled, Today assignments passed
from Brokaw and Pauley to Chris Wallace, Linda Ellerbee, Bryant Gumbel, and Deborah Norville. As hosts were
replaced, the most popular Today figures became weather caster Willard Scott and movie critic Gene Shalit. A cloud
hung over the program when the public learned that Gumbel had tried to have Scott and Shalit removed.
Further challenge came in 1986 when Fox television
began. In 1994 Fox acquired powerful TV stations in most
cities. Rather than a national morning program, Fox had
each station develop its own version of Today. These local
programs multiplied and claimed the highest ratings. For
the first time, viewers in all regions saw live morning programming. In the West, Today viewers had not seen live
TV but a recording of telecast made three hours earlier in
New York. The local programs concentrated on weather,
traffic, and school closure information that Today could not
provide.
Despite increased competition, Today again became
the main source of national and world news in the morning period. In 1996, the program reclaimed first place
in the national audience ratings when Couric and Matt
Lauer were paired. Couric and Lauer became prominent
TV celebrities. The weekday program expanded to three
hours (7a.m.–10 a.m.). Weekend Today broadcasts began.
In 2000, Today reprised its 1952 innovation of showing
crowds in Rockefeller Center. Upstairs studios were abandoned. The entire program was televised from a streetside location.
Today was honored as a landmark when broadcasters
observed its fiftieth anniversary in 2002. Of television’s
hundreds of thousands of programs, only one other, NBC’s
Meet the Press started in 1947, had been seen for a longer
period.
Further Reading
Davis, Gerry. The Today Show: An Anecdotal History. New York:
Morrow, 1987.
Kessler, Judy. Inside Today: The Battle for the Morning. New
York: Villard Books, 1992.
Metz, Robert. The Today Show: An Inside Look at 25 Tumultuous
Years … and the Colorful and Controverial People Behind
the Scenes. Chicago: Playboy Press, 1977.
Craig Allen