ROSWELL, Georgia – In the last six weeks NBC has been scrambling to fix a leak in one of it’s most successful programs: the Today show. NBC News’ three-hour morning show has led its original two-hour time slot (7:00 – 9:00 a.m.) for the better part of a decade, but the show, which expanded to three hours soon after the turn of the century, has recently seen a decline in its margin of victory. For the first time in a long time, “America’s First Family” has been struggling to stay on top.

Word first spread in a late-April edition of the New York Times, announcing the firing of the show’s executive producer Tom Touchet and the “hiring” of Jim Bell, a thirtysomething Harvard alum who was the Coordinating Producer for NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens. The announcement was made by Jeff Zucker, another youthful success story out of Harvard who currently heads NBC Universal Television and who was Today‘s executive producer when it first took the lead in the morning ratings game.

A follow-up story then ran in USA Today with an exclusive interview with Today co-host Katie Couric, who said that the show had gone into “tabloid mode,” abandoning more hard-hitting journalism for the sake of being “least offensive.” Of course, it would have been unlikely for Couric to point to herself as a weak link in the program, which isn’t even accurate. In fact, she and co-host Matt Lauer have played lesser roles since the expansion from two to three hours. The show has instead been more saturated with “fluff pieces,” and it doesn’t take long for the average viewer to notice.

When it has been most important, namely on September 11, 2001, Today did a superb job of delivering vital news and images to keep the viewing public informed on that morning. That was indeed their true moment in the sun, where the Couric-Lauer pair demonstrated just how effective they are in doing real news. For any viewer on that day who turned on NBC, one could take comfort in voices of some very familiar people, sustaining hope for the fates of both friends and family.

Since then, however, the show has declined in the quality of its content, opting out of meaningful stories in favor of a more palatable morning blend. It is as if Today has become taken with itself and has stayed too long vainly staring at its reflection in the mirror instead of redefining network television news as it once had. Perhaps the show’s downfall has been it’s third hour, spreading content too thin and resulting in a watered down version of its former self. In “America’s First Family” Katie and Matt were always the parents, Al Roker and Ann Curry the children. As the show took on 60 more minutes, Roker and Curry have seen an increase in their on-camera presence, creating sideshows out of supporting roles. Doing Today right would either mean more work for Couric and Lauer or that NBC will have to go back to the drawing board for the 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. time slot. One can only hope that a noticable change will be coming soon, but if this morning’s segment on a “Tiger’s Root Canal” is any indication, the show still has a long way to go.

Filed under: Opinion/Editorial, Television