Meredith Vieira to Leave 'Today' in June; Ann Curry Is Replacement

[Keith Bee]

Source: THR

Meredith Vieira will exit NBC's Today show in June, nearly three months before the end of her contract, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Today newsreader Ann Curry will be promoted to co-host, and correspondent Natalie Morales will take Curry's place as newsreader.

An official announcement could come as early as next week.

Vieira took the seat next to co-host Matt Lauer in 2006, replacing Katie Couric. Since then, Today has extended its run as the top-rated morning news program to more than 800 weeks. The show is critically important to NBC News' bottom line, pulling in half a billion dollars in ad revenue last year for the weekday morning hours alone.

Read more: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/meredith-vieira-leave-today-june-183335

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Ann Curry is hot. I'm not kidding.

[aquart]

1. Why are they dumping Viera again?

And, just so you know, "not hot" won't be an acceptable answer.

[Keith Bee]

3. Beats me

Then again, I've always had a dim view of Today hosts, both male and female. I liked Brokaw, Gumbel, Norville, and I continue to like Roker, as well as Curry. But that's pretty much it.

[karynnj]

13. I see Brokaw as one of the people who led in making news entertainment rather than news

This was actually mentioned as a positive when he retired, but I think it is a huge negative.

[Honeycombe8]

30. Brokaw did a normal broadcast news show. I don't recall him doing...

any entertainment type shows, or even opinion shows, like KO or Hannity.

[JI7]

5. i think Viera is the one who wanted to leave, i heard her husband is sick

[No Elephants]

10. He's had MS as long as they've known each other. Maybe he's worse.

[jmowreader]

18. I like my news anchors to be hot

Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite are both dead, and so is their style of journalism. These days, the REAL journalists--the ones who find news and stand in muck and ooze to report it--aren't the anchors. Anchors just introduce stories and make little witticisms.

So...since all they're for anymore is to be a pretty face and a nice voice, I want them to have a REALLY pretty face.

[Frank Cannon]

20. I don't always watch the news on television.

But when I do, I prefer my anchors to be hot.



Stay informed, my friends.

[aquart]

21. I think I'll shower now.

Feel a little slime splashed.

[Bluebear]

22. Maybe her softball interview of Trump?

As reports that Meredith Vieira is planning an exit from NBC's "Today Show" swirl, the anchor has sparked controversy over her failure to question a number of unsubstantiated challenges to the U.S. citizenship of President Barack Obama that Donald Trump floated in an interview with Vieira this morning...

"Trump simply steamrolled over her challenges, for instance, on Hawaii's policy as to what birth documents it makes available," writes Time's James Poniewozik. "But she also let him make the claim that Obama's grandmother said she saw him born in Kenya--an old, and long-debunked, chestnut of birthers that ranks up there with the fake Mombassa birth certificate--without questioning it. So now millions of Today viewers are invited to take it as fact."

A spokeswoman for the "Today Show" did not respond to a request seeking comment on whether Vieira felt that she had adequately pressed Trump on his claims. But judging by how some of her peers in TV news have handled Trump in the same situation, she appears to have failed.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110407/ts_yblog_thecutline/trump-brings-media-blitz-to-nbc-steamrolls-meredith-vieira-on-birther-issue

[Honeycombe8]

27. Age. It's a known pattern among networks.

That new show on CNN with the criminal guy, Spitzer...they dumped the "old" Republican cohort. His guests now include YOUNGER, blonde, bombeshell Republican cohorts.

Jane Pauley - Deborah Norville.

Katie Courik....she's gotten too old, according to some. One of my male friends comments not on her job performance...he's only ever mentioned to me comments about her "old" appearance.

One of the firsts was Liz something. Years ago. She wrote about it...the behind the scenes efforts by the network to make her look younger and prettier. She was a prize winning journalist.

Colleen whatshername on CNN. Overweight and middle aged, she's still at CNN. But she'll never have her own show.

MSNBC...Deborah O'Donald or whatever her name is was promoted a few years ago to be THE go-to Washington correspondent or something. She was prettier than the one with the credentials who should've been promoted to that job (her name is similar...she's still there, usu. in a raincoat or something, broadcasting special stories from Washington or New Hampshire or wherever...Deborah is always in a studio with perfect hair and makeup, it seems).

There have been exceptions. Christianne Amanpour is middle aged, brunette, and was recently given her own show. But that's an exception. And let's not forget that she rose to fame partly because of her attractive, exotic looks while was much younger. And she has connections (close friends with the Kennedys).

You have to look at the big picture to spot it. Television is a visual medium. While advances have been made, women still tend to become more invisible to the public as they age. Being invisible is not a good thing for network TV.

Compare women on TV with the men...flip channels and look for middle aged male broadcasters, and then flip and look for middle aged female broadcasters.

As a middle aged woman, I started reading about this phenomenon when I was a teenager. I believed it, and since then, I've experienced it firsthand. As you age, people tend to look around you, over you, through you. Waiters sometimes don't notice you. (And I'm not an unattractive middle aged woman at all...I pride myself on having an attractive face, good hair, and a physically fit body)...but I'm still middle aged. When you have a network TV show, you want someone that makes the audience take notice of, catches their attention. That's often not middle aged women.

[No Elephants]

2. Hotness has always been my criterion for a news anchor, too.(

:eyes:

[Teaser]

11. co-host of the Today Show is not a news anchor

.

[qanda]

4. Ann Curry is probably the most terrible interviewer I have ever seen

I get so uncomfortable when I see her try to relate to people. Meredith is so good at what she does. Why is she leaving?

[Glimmer of Hope]

8. I agree. She is awful!

[forty6]

32. I don't agree, she's a news person, her interview skill can be improved

but she comes from solid news, not entertainment.

She will grow on you.

[Atman]

6. Do people still watch that show?

Total dreck. Cooking and fashion bits...who cares? Viera should be happy to leave.

[Honeycombe8]

28. I like fashion bits, etc. But I quit watching those morning shows years ago...

because they ALWAYS do the tease for an exciting story "coming up." After the break, they do some other story, then do the tease again for the exciting story "coming up." It goes on and on....and usually I have to leave for work before the exciting story that was coming up, actually comes up.

I got so angry many years ago that I vowed to quit watching that crap, and I did.

What they SHOULD do is be honest and say the exciting story is in the last 1/4th of the program, then I'd know that I will NOT be able to see the exciting story.

[forty6]

33. What's a better alternative, CNN? Fox? MSNBC? certainly NOT

ABC......which often cans news of the world to news of Hollywood.

[66 dmhlt]

7. Why don't they do us a favor & get rid of Matt Lauer?

[Keith Bee]

9. True that!

What a douche.

[tabasco]

24. Couldn't have said it better.

Description fits him to a "t."

[Honeycombe8]

29. I thought I read that he's leaving, too. nt

[wilt the stilt]

12. For us older guys Meredith is pretty hot

and she dresses hot with the heels. sad to see her go

[alp227]

14. and her predecessor Katie Couric is leaving her current broadcasting job

but i won't miss either of 'em.

[progressoid]

15. How about they replace the Today show with an actual news show instead.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

16. The demographic watching television at that time don't really want a "news" show

They want a fluffy infotainment program that won't tax their minds and they can follow in the background while they do other things. :shrug:

[AngryOldDem]

17. Because this type of format works for those who don't have the time for anything else.

Small bits of info, the news that is important, the weather, followed by local news. That's all a lot of us have time for in the morning.

And as for Viera -- good riddance. She wore out her welcome with me a long time ago.

[Auntie Bush]

19. I've never particularly cared for Ann Curry.

Curry is not hot in my opinion! I predict Today Show's rating to go down. Sending healing to Merediths husband.

[theHandpuppet]

23. Wow. I just realized by reading this thread....

... why there's no room for serious women journalists on network TV shows. Are you guys sure you don't have a "hotness scale" you can post to Facebook or something? Frankly, I'd take a damn find reporter any day, even if she looked like Walter Cronkite.

Some days I wonder whether or not we've made any progress at all. I really don't expect to read such sexist BS on DU. It's more than sad -- it's embarrassing.

[Doremus]

26. With you on this 100%.

[tabasco]

25. Annie can spout corporate propaganda and she has good legs!

It's a propaganda network, people!

Stop expecting "good reporting." LOL.

Viera is too old so she is OBSOLETE!

[Duppers]

31. good!

I watched enough of that vile show, the View, to know that Meredith Vieira has conservative political views.

I love soft-spoken Ann Curry.

[forty6]

34. Just to change the subject a bit, WHO would be best for that show?

Rachel Maddow? Keith? Is there anyone else at NBC news that is good?

Richard Engle would be MY choice. Don't have a woman in mind... but that's me.. I'm a guy...looking for solid news guys/gals....Rachel would be perfect, but way to early to appreciate her talent at 7 AM.