What surprises me most, is who is it at NBC that is making seriously erroneous decisions on the talent, as previously underlined by the entire Jay Leno-Conan O'Brien fiasco? The outcome of that one was entirely predictable, and it played out as if I had scripted it myself. Just as I had when they first announced that Conan would take over, I informed NBC that putting our gal Ann into the hot seat beside Matt would come back to haunt them. But like most big corporations, it is the bottom line that drives change, and only when the "Today" show began to slip in the ratings, and actually fell below it's competitor (ABC's "Good Morning America") for the first time in almost twenty years (!!), did the execs start to get restless. Remember, we are talking about a serious bottom line here, because in advertising alone, "Today" brings in almost a billion dollars per year! That is a staggering amount for an early morning show and makes it one of the most profitable in television, but that also brings pressure to deliver on the ratings so that those numbers are maintained or grow further. The sad thing for all concerned being that it did not take a brain surgeon to have figured out that this imminent divorce would be coming right on the heels of the honeymoon. She was put into the hot seat barely a year ago, and already the ratings took a serious hit, one not seen during the tenures of either Meredith Vieira or Katie Couric, her predecessors. Given that Matt has been a constant, it's not hard to imagine in which direction the fingers would be pointing. I even heard that Ann took the losses quite personally, and questioned herself, and one cannot help but feel for her, especially as such inner turmoil usually has a negative effect on performance in front of the camera.
Now let me get one thing straight here: Ann seems like a great gal. I liked her more in her old role as news anchor, but thought she was great on Dateline NBC, and she appears to be a very enthusiastic journalist and broadcaster. The loss is one felt by all concerned, I imagine. But, and it is a big but, hell, a huge but, it was evident from Ann's performance in her old role as news anchor on the same show that she was not co-anchor material. Even while reading scripted news on a teleprompter, her performances could range from more or less acceptable on some days, to an endless series of mistakes, either in grammar or phrasing or flubbed words, on others. If she got off to a good start, things usually went well, but if an early mistake occurred it could lead to a badly delivered newsbreak. It often felt like one was seeing a newbie being tried out, and that's just not acceptable at this level for a veteran of a decade or more. I think it's probably safe to say that she might be a much better journalist than she is a broadcaster. You know, even after a year of saying it, she still has trouble saying "Welcome to Today, on NBC": the very first three words are often problematic. That "to" followed by "To" causes her real problems and it often sounds slurred or garbled. This astounds me because surely a producer has noticed it, and surely she could have been coached to say it properly? If not, make damn sure it's our Matt who does the honors each day! Her relative success as host of Dateline NBC simply emphasizes that she is not made for live TV, but can be very good when given a script and the chance to re-record a section over and over. However, in live interviews for Today, there could be some real blunders, and she could occasionally come across as a total beginner. She has even invented words; I can remember her praising two young boys for their "heroicism", and you could almost sense the kids, in a spelling bee type of mindframe, wanting to tell her that the word doesn't exist! Another example was one day where she said that they were going to be talking with someone; the only problem being that the person in question was dead. She began to be known as "La Gaffe", and that's not good in live TV.
But irrespective of all of the technical issues, there's also just the visual impact and authority of someone who was born to anchor and who fits into the chair as if it had been molded just for them. If you can add in some real chemistry with the other anchor, you are on a winner. But Matt and Anne ain't no Bryant Gumbel and Jane Pauley: a class act that has been hard to reproduce. Anne also has a very irritating habit of looking directly at Matt, in a sort of fawning fashion, when he is speaking to camera, and she seems to forget that she is supposed to be looking at her audience. It's a bit like wanting to watch the quarterback throw the ball, when you are supposed to be looking ahead so you can catch it! Matt and Anne just don't fit together at that desk, she never truly sank into that seat, and frankly, on days when the super smooth Natalie Morales sat in, in relative terms, our Nat knocked it out of the park. She could be a great co-anchor, and it would almost be reminiscent of a younger Meredith. I've got a feeling that the big guns may prefer the more intellectual gifts of Savannah Guthrie, who unquestionably will outperform Anne. However, there is a warmth and connectivity that our Nat has with ease, that Sav is less capable of, and I think that the chemistry is better with Nat and Matt also. To be honest, I would almost be tempted to go for the long shot, and consider giving the charming Tamron Hall a go at it. She has a fire and charm that just jumps out of the screen at you, Matt seems to work well with her, and she exudes the kind of confidence in front of camera that Anne will never have. She's a smart, sassy firecracker and is totally telegenic. Hoda Kotb has been touted by some as the new frontrunner, but I don't feel as strongly about her contributions, though she might be the closest of all them to feeling like the new Meredith. Of course, these are all fallback positions from the in-house stable; the ideal solution would be an outsider chosen on merit, in a fashion similar to the brilliant move that was Meredith Vieira, who sadly has refused an offer to return. I can only imagine the salary offer on that one!
So, almost inevitably Anne will now be farmed off to a Dateline NBC or some other news program. If I was to be truly cynical, as I suggested to a friend a year ago, this was all part of a move to push Anne off the Today show. She was not performing well on the news, we had Nat, Sav and Tamron in the wings, and with Meredith leaving, we got the chance to slip Anne in, knowing full well it wouldn't last for long, and there's no way to stay on and go back to hosting the news, once it's over. She will have to go and we will have to pay her to do so. On that note, don't shed too many tears for Anne who is rumored to be about to collect in excess of ten million dollars as her golden handshake, given that she has two years left on her contract. Everyone must have winced at reading her words in a magazine article that just came out, wherein she stated that she intended to be on the Today show for another five years. Ouch! But it's the best outcome for everyone. There is even some speculation that the "will he-won't he" regarding Matt leaving the show, which would be a real disaster, was resolved not only with an amazing salary offer but also some guarantees relating to him getting the co-chair his brand deserves. Promoting the wrong people up the ladder is always a painful process, for employer and employee alike, and it's not fun to watch someone being asked to do something that they are just not equipped for, especially when the pressure and wounds begin to show. I would love to have Al's job for example, but I sure ain't equipped to wheel out "That's what's going on around the country, here's what's happening in your neck of the woods", a hundred times a day!
Then again, for several million a year, I might suffer in silence! ;) - Kevin Mc
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