The battle for morning TV claims another scalp: How Ann Curry is just the latest victim of a 37-year war between Today and Good Morning America
Crushed: Ann Curry has been sacked as host of NBC's Today, according to recent reports
Crushed: Ann Curry has been sacked as host of NBC's Today, according to recent reports
After her first day as anchor on NBC’s Today show, Ann Curry beamed as she told how proud she was.
Having lost both her parents a few years before, she said her ‘dream job’ was in honour of them as much as it was for her.
Speaking last June she said: ‘When I heard that this was my job, as I stood up I could feel the last bit of sadness that I’d been carrying around after losing my parents fall to the ground, I could feel their pride, it pushed everything out.
‘I felt like Cinderella, I did. I felt like all these years cleaning the floor, I just felt suddenly I was getting to be in the bright lights and the pretty dress and I was sitting next to the prince.’
Twelve months on Curry’s dream has been swallowed up by what is in danger of becoming a nightmare for Today.
The show is being beaten in the ratings by Good Morning America, ABC’s upstart rival, and the 54-year-old is now being moved on in a major scalp in the war between the two networks.
The decisive moment came in the week of April the 9th when GMA ended Today’s 16-year winning streak with 5.147 million viewers compared to Today‘s 5.134 million, a majority of 13,000.
A fortnight later Today was back on top with an average of 5.25 million viewers, some 243,000 more than GMA - but it had lost its symbolic title.
Curry was given her marching orders and, in an ironic twist on her own comments, she was branded by the New York Times: ‘Cinderella without a prince.’
Few would dispute that she became a pawn in one of the longest running battles on network TV, and also one of the most bitter.
It has raged for 37 years and goes back to 1975 when GMA was first launched as AM America.
Hosted by Bill Beutel and Stephanie Edwards, one of its newsreaders was a young Peter Jennings who went on to anchor World News Tonight for 18 years.
Team: Ms Curry, pictured with co-hosts Al Roker, Matt lauer and Natalie Morales, is being axed to make way for the fresh blood that NBC hopes can reinvigorate its flagship property
Team: Ms Curry, pictured with co-hosts Al Roker, Matt Lauer and Natalie Morales, is being axed to make way for the fresh blood that NBC hopes can reinvigorate its flagship property
Excitement: But Today is in danger of losing its crown as the leading morning show after 16 years on top
Excitement: But Today is in danger of losing its crown as the leading morning show after 16 years on top
At the time Today, which was first broadcast in 1952, was being anchored by Barbara Walters, who had worked her way up from being a ‘Today Girl’ covering lifestyle and chat.
And Today actually remained on top until the late 1980s, when GMA took its crown for the first time, spurred on by the partnership of Joan Lunden and Charles Gibson as anchors.
At the same time Today suffered a PR disaster over the Deborah Norville fiasco.
She was seen as driving co-host Jane Pauley off the programme whilst she was on maternity leave and breaking up the TV ‘marriage’ between her and fellow anchor Bryant Gumbel.
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It was not until Katie Couric’s reign began in 1991 that Today began to fight back.
Couric was such a success that GMA briefly slipped to third in the morning ratings before Diane Sawyerand Charles Gibson were brought in to steady the ship.
In 2009 GMA announced that former Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos would be joining Robin Roberts as anchor, the line-up which remains to this day.
Today meanwhile is anchored by Matt Lauer who has been with the show since 1997 and recently negotiated a pay deal that will earn him $25million to stay put.
He is seen as one of the most competent anchors of his generation - but even he has been unable to stop the rot from setting in.
Katie Couric
Meredith Vieira
Following in the footsteps: Katie Couric, left, and Meredith Vieira are two of Today's best-known former anchors
So what exactly caused Today’s change in fortunes?
GMA’s success can be boiled down to one factor above all - relentless populism.
It has heavily promoted the ABC show ‘Dancing with the Stars’ with exclusive interviews with the cast every day it was on.
GMA has embraced the Internet with its ‘Play of the Day’ feature - a funny video often sent in by viewers - and featured a cabaret during its Halloween episode that turned the studio into what looked like a children’s party.
And whilst serious news is covered, there is a significant bias towards lighter, more humorous pieces.
Viewers fleeing ‘CBS This Morning’ are also thought to have bolstered GMA’s ratings as they seek a less news-led start to their day.
Finally there is the drive of the team behind GMA - 16 years in television is not just a lifetime, it is longer than some people’s careers.
Tom Cibrowski, senior executive producer of GMA, summed it up in one interview he gave before they took the no.1 spot in which he said: ‘We all feel the same way. We've got to beat Today.’
Legend: Barbara Walters was a host of Today from 1961 to 1976; she is pictured here on her last day
Legend: Barbara Walters was a host of Today from 1961 to 1976; she is pictured here on her last day
Curry has not helped herself or NBC either.
The New York Times claimed network executives thought she was ‘over the top in terms of emotions’ and unable to make the blunt tone transitions necessary of a morning anchor.
A year into her job Today had lost nearly all of its 780,000 lead over GMA amid brutal reports from Gawker which claimed NBC bosses thought she was ‘atrocious’.
At the same time GMA’s Robin Roberts scored a huge hit when she got the interview with President Barack Obama in which he voiced his support for gay marriage.
Twisting the knife was Couric showing up on GMA to guest host for a week, the week before it took back the top spot. It was also a week when Lauer was on holiday, leaving Curry to fend for herself.
For those wondering why all this matters, apart from pride the answer is simple - money.
In 2011 Today earned $484 million from commercials, helped significantly by the fact it was no. 1 in the ratings.
GMA, by contrast, managed $298 million.
A 30-second advert on Today sells for $50,000 versus $35,000 for GMA, according to analysts Kantar Media.
Robin Roberts
Diane Sawyer
Rivals: Robin Roberts, left, and Diane Sawyer have hosted Good Morning America, Today's main rival
All this will be cold comfort to Curry, who is thought to be eyeing up a return to foreign reporting, which she dearly loves.
Attorney Robert B. Barnett is representing Curry in the discussions with NBC - he represented Christiane Amanpour in her talks with ABC as she left the news program This Week.
Curry will reportedly be gone by next month, before the start of the London Olympics on July 27, which NBC has the rights for.
So it is a testament to her professionalism that on Thursday, even though she was at the centre of one of the biggest news stories of the day, she still came in to work and acted as if nothing was amiss.
On her Twitter account it was business as usual when she wrote 'Good morning Twitterverse,' to her 1.2 million followers.
Opening the show she said: 'Good morning. From hot to hotter. You thought yesterday was a scorcher? In many places in the East today, it’s going to get even hotter.'
Losing ground: The gap between Today (red bar) and GMA (blue bar) has been steadily narrowing
Losing ground: The gap between Today (red bar) and GMA (blue bar) has been steadily narrowing
Later in the show she appeared alongside Lauer, Al Roker and Natalie Morales - one of the women who has been mentioned as her possible replacement.
Her 'good morning' tweet, sent out about 8am, received dozens of responses from her fans, who offered her their support.
'To know just how professional @AnnCurry is, she's been faultless co-hosting @todayshow this morning. Despite all the pressure. #ClassAct,' CNN interviewer Piers Morgan tweeted.
The flurry made Ann Curry the top trending phrase on Twitter Thursday morning. Curry didn't respond to any of her supporters.
Savannah Guthrie, who co-hosts the show's third hour, is at the top of the list of Curry's possible replacements.
Morales, Today's news anchor, and Meredith Vieira, who left the co-host role last year, have been mentioned in talks for the position, news outlets reported.
Vieira has remained involved with NBC and in addition to Today co-hosting duties from London during the Queen's Jubillee, she will also be contributing from the upcoming Olympics for the network.
TMZ reported she had been offered Curry's job and refused to return.
Curry began her career at NBC in 1990 as part of the news team.
She began working as news anchor for the Today show in 1997, a position she held onto until she was promoted to share the hosting role with Lauer, for which she is paid a reported $2 million a year.
In her remaining time on Today, perhaps her own words about predecessor Vieira's final day at the studio will provide her with the support she needs - even if NBC won't.
From the same interview she gave at the end of her own first day, Curry said: ‘That moment at the very end, when you looked into her (Vieira's) eyes you could see that she felt how much everyone loved her.
‘Wouldn’t you wish that on everyone, that they could feel how much everyone loves them?
‘She’ll never forget it.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2163005/Ann-Curry-leaving-Today-Latest-victim-37-year-war-Good-Morning-America.html#ixzz1yWz9ddYW
The battle for morning TV claims another scalp: How Ann Curry is just the latest victim of a 37-year war between Today and Good Morning America
The battle for morning TV claims another scalp: How Ann Curry is just the latest victim of a 37-year war between Today and Good Morning America
