The Today Show first aired on January 14, 1952. It was the brainchild of Pat Weaver, who was then vice-president of NBC. Weaver was president of the company from 1953 to 1955 (during which time Today's late-night companion, The Tonight Show, premiered), and then served as chairman of the board for another year. Pat Weaver is the father of actress Sigourney Weaver.
Today was the first show of its genre when it signed on with original host Dave Garroway. The show blends national news headlines, in-depth interviews with newsmakers, lifestyle features, other light news and gimmicks (including the presence of the chimpanzee J. Fred Muggs as the show's mascot during the early years), and local news updates. It has spawned several other shows of a similar type, including ABC's Good Morning America, and CBS' The Early Show.
In other countries the format was copied - most notably in the United Kingdom with the BBC's Breakfast and ITV's Good Morning Britain and in Canada with Canada AM on CTV.
When Today started, it was seen live only in the Eastern and Central time zones, broadcasting three hours per morning but seen for only two hours in each time zone. Later, Today aired live for five hours a morning on Monday morning but it was seen for only two consecutive hours in each of the four U.S. continental time zones. Since 1958, Today is tape-delayed for the different time zones. For many years it was a two-hour program from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. in all time zones except for Alaska, Hawaii and U.S. Virgin Islands, until NBC expanded it to three hours (until 10:00 a.m. in all time zones) on October 2, 2000. In some markets (such as Boston, Massachusetts, on WHDH-TV), the third hour of Today is tape-delayed by an hour and airs at 10 a.m. NBC News president Steve Capus announced January 17, 2007 that beginning in September 2007, Today will broadcast for 4 hours a day from 7-11 a.m.
The show is currently hosted by Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira. Al Roker does national weather updates, signaling the thirty-second cutaway to local forecasting with the outcue, "That's what's happening around the country, here’s what’s happening in your neck of the woods." (If an affiliate has no weather update, there is no NBC affiliate in the area, or if viewers are watching the show internationally, a national summary of temperatures from Roker is shown instead.) Ann Curry reads news headlines. Natalie Morales is a national correspondent and co-host of the third hour of the program, Gene Shalit is the entertainment critic, and Peter Greenberg is the travel editor. Roker, Curry, and Morales interview guests and take part in other segments in addition to their weather and news duties during the 9 a.m. hour. Also, former Today Show weatherman Willard Scott sends birthday wishes to centenarians twice weekly and occasionally subs for Roker. NBC News White House correspondent David Gregory has recently been added as substitute host for Matt Lauer. Bob Dotson, Jamie Gangel, and Melissa Stark are National Correspondents for Today. Kelly O'Donnell covers the day's events at the White House while Tim Russert (host of NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday mornings) offers commentary on current political news (MSNBC's Chris Matthews sometimes subs for Russert). Jean Chatzky, editor-at-large for Money Magazine, provides weekly financial segments.
The show broadcasts from Studio 1A in Rockefeller Center, New York, just across the street from NBC headquarters at the GE Building. The studio is located right next to the street and many times the hosts do the weather or other events from outside.
The Today program first originated from the RCA Exhibition Hall on 49th Street in a space now occupied by the Christie's auction house, just down the block from the current studio. The first set placed a functional newsroom in the studio, which Garroway called "the nerve center of the world." Gradually, machines and personnel were placed behind the scenes to assemble the news and weather reports, and the newsroom was gone by 1955. In 1958, the show moved across the street to Studio 3K in the RCA Building, where it remained through the early 1960s. On July 9, 1962, the show returned to a streetside studio in the space then occupied by the Florida Showcase. In September 1965, Today moved back to the RCA Building. The network's news programming went to all-color broadcasts at that time, and NBC could not justify allocating four (then-expensive) color cameras to the Florida Showcase studio. For the next twenty 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 (adjacent to Studio 8H, home to Saturday Night Live) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and finally Studio 3B from 1983 to 1994. Today moved to the current streetside studio in June 1994, providing a link to the show's 1950s origins.
Since the premiere of the 1990s set, the morning shows of each of the major broadcast and cable-news networks has moved streetside -- including two of Today's Rockefeller Center neighbors, Fox News' Fox & Friends and CNN's American Morning. (In summer 2005, CNN reversed the trend, abandoning its street-level studio and moving upstairs in the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle.) ABC's Good Morning America broadcasts from Times Square Studios.
In 2006, Studio 1A underwent a major renovation to prepare for 1080i high-definition broadcasting. After the departure of Katie Couric and while a new set was readied (Summer of 2006), the program was broadcast from a temporary outdoor studio in Rockefeller Plaza, the same set NBC used at the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece and Torino, Italy (see A New co-host and New Era Begins section below for more). [1] 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's studio, also used during inclement weather. Also, they used a temporary outdoor set at 30 Rock.On September 13, 2006, Today moved into its brand new set. The new studio is divided into five different parts on the lower level. It includes the 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. There is also an upstairs that will be home to Today's kitchen. 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. The program’s concerts are now broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound.The weekday director is Joe Michaels.
For the program's first 25 years, weather reports were delivered by the host or newsreader. Dave Garroway would draw the day's weather fronts and areas of precipitation on a big chalkboard map of the United States, based on information gathered earlier in the morning from the U.S. Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C. Subsequent hosts John Chancellor and Hugh Downs dropped the chalkboard weather map concept and instead read a prepared weather summary over a still image of a weather map. When the show went to all-color broadcasts in 1965, weather maps were prepared and projected on a screen behind Frank Blair, who would deliver the forecast immediately after his news summaries. Under the old two-hour format, weather reports would be delivered every half-hour after the newscast. Today, the weather is still given every half-hour, but follows the news only at the top of the hour.
The first brand extension was created in 1982. Early Today was conceived as a lead-in for Today. It even had the same anchors, Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley. The program was conceived so local stations could carry the full hour or one of the two half-hours. After a year NBC cancelled the program, after concluding that the show was too similar to Today. It was replaced by NBC News at Sunrise anchored by Connie Chung.
In 1999, NBC cancelled NBC News at Sunrise and created two brand extensions for Today. One was Early Today (not to be confused with the earlier incarnation). Replacing NBC News at Sunrise, the program originally was produced by CNBC and focused on business and financial news before switching to general news under the same production staff as MSNBC First Look; it continues to air on many NBC affiliates. Also in the of fall 1999, Later Today, a talk show that was intended to air immediately following the then two-hour Today, was launched with hosts Jodi Applegate, Florence Henderson and Asha Blake. Sagging ratings for that show caused its cancellation in August 2000; it was replaced two months later by a third hour of Today.
Starting in September 2007, the show will expand to four hours, stretching the top-rated and highly profitable show into the late morning. NBC made the formal announcement Wednesday, January 17, at its press tour sessions, confirming a number of reports about the extra hour. The show will now air from 7 a.m.-11 a.m. on most stations, although some affiliates may air the fourth hour at another time of the day. Ann Curry, Natalie Morales and Al Roker currently host the third hour of Today; it is currently unknown who will host the fourth hour, although Meredith Vieira is contractually forbidden from participating in the third and fourth hours of Today.
NBC will cancel their daytime soap Passions (which will move to DirecTV-exclusive channel The 101) in order to give affiliates time back for syndicated programming that they lost in the mornings