One great thing about the Christmas hols is the fact that we are not slaves to our alarm clocks (i.e. us normal folk who don't have the amazing clinically proven Philips wake-up light, like our own Miss Crissy C!) and we get to lie in bed and exclaim "Ah, time for my news" just as the Today show is about to start. Instead of having to race out into the cold towards the shower, we get to lie back waiting to hear the news of the day.
I have been on an almost year-long hiatus from the show, so I was quite intrigued to see how many of my suggested changes were implemented by NBC, and what was shaking on this historically money printing but recently withering news franchise. Well, to be honest (and we always say what we think on the EU blog ;), from what I saw this morning, jumping out of bed into the cold no longer seems to be the worst option!
This show has been in freefall for over a year now, as documented on this blog, and totally irrespective of the facelift that the show has clearly been given, it has become as irrelevant as I can possibly remember it ever being. Sometimes when you try too hard, and try too hard to be "hip" and "cool", you just show your age in all of the overreaching. Matt and Savannah are alright, but associating the word "cool" with their brands is pure oxymoron. People who bring us serious news at 7am aren't supposed to be cool - they should be serious journalists bringing us our daily dose of doom-and-gloom so we can all head out to work feeling that the world is crumbling around us - now that's a typical Monday morning!
And speaking of facelifts, can one of the producers kindly point out to our Matt that showing up in an ultraexpensive designer suit but coupled to an unkempt, patchy, barely visible grey/white fluffy growth on his face is hardly the kind of facelift that the show is trying to achieve. He just looks unwashed and messy, and it's bad for the brand. Yes, a guy in his twenties who comes to work unshaven can still look kinda good (especially as the hair is not white!) but it's an entirely different thing for a middle-aged man - one who actually looks older than his age with that growth.
It's as if our Matt is ready for retirement already! Can't be bothered making the effort and shaving each morning anymore. Surely someone has hinted that it's not a great look for him, and he does not look clean on camera? Perhaps it looks better in person, but for sure on camera it's unclean. Beards should only be worn by those who can grow a real one - like in the old days in the Navy, a man had to go to the ship's captain and ask permission to grow a beard. The experienced old salt could look at a sailor's face and determine easily whether it would be "a real beard" or "a messy excuse", and his decision was final.
The facial hair is not the only cosmetic work-up of late, and it is accurate to say that the whole presentation has been altered, mainly to keep up with the Joneses, i.e. by apparently outright copying of the format of the competition. Now all four "hosts" sit together giggling at one bigger desk (a virtual kitchen table) in an effort to clone the "one big happy family" reality of other shows such as Good Morning America or CBS Saturday. The difference being that those shows are leading for a reason - the conviviality and collegiality is real, not forced, nor faked for the camera. You simply cannot clone friendship and happiness.
I find the new format to be a total distraction. Can I just get my morning news presented in a serious and professional fashion, in a manner that has been historically aligned with the NBC brand? All the chatter, and raised coffee mugs and jokes should be saved for the 8am (if not 9am) time slot, and the first hour should be serious news and no nonsense. Bring back the glory days of total pro Bryant Gumbel and darling Jane Pauley, puh-lease! I ain't gettin' all nostalgic here people - even with all the new gadgets and social media candyfloss - these two could still do it better than anyone! Very touching also to have seen them both return to the show in December to help out as co-hosts, on a celebration of Matt's 56th birthday.
I mean, what is Al Roker needed for at that anchor's desk? He's the weatherman, has been for essentially two decades now, and his place is at that new fancy giant touchscreen they gave him for Christmas - not at the anchor's desk. He's employed to say "Here's what's happening in your neck of the woods", a million times per day, and not as a newsbringer or commentator. Thanks God NBC did listen to me on that, and he almost never mentions "Your neck of the woods" today. They can give him all the massive screens and extra time they want, but even as he incessantly prances and pants in front of the giant image trying to whip us into a weather-laced frenzy, I simply yawn and cry out "Can we get back to some actual news, pleeeeease!"
It's the weather, people! Look out your window, and there you have it. We don't need it to become the new main feature, wheeled in as an excuse for any real depth and content. Ditto the godamn "Orange room" where hosting journeyman Carson Daly now presides and keeps us all so wonderfully up-to-date with the social media world. Yawn. Listen y'all, it's 2014! That may seem like a strange comment, and I can hear y'all yelling at me that in 2014, social media is the big thing and I should accept its dominance on the show.
Duh. Yes. I know. Well, actually, social media was the big thing in 2012 and 2013. Ergo? We all know how to use it and most of us do use it. I don't need some tech team at NBC to tell me what people are saying about Savannah's gold lame dress, on air, when I am watching my news - I can go on Twitter during the advertisements and see the nonsense for myself! The Orange room is another excuse for what is missing in abundance - good, old-fashioned, content. However, many clouds do have a silver lining indeed, and the one major attraction of the Orange room is the presence in there of the sparkling, indefatigable Tamron Hall - that alone can justify its existence, until it is evaporated.
All of this new style and panache has been incorporated into the shows that were in competition with Today, and those shows got it right, as evidenced by their ascent to the very tip of Everest in the ratings - a spot that was owned by NBC's Today for centuries. Ok, make that decades! But Today was always a leader, never a follower, and trying to turn the show into a hotter version of the cooler competition simply isn't working. Oh my God, am I going to get emotional enough where I will put into print "Come back Ann Curry, all is forgiven!" - well, not quite. Not least as I am sure that she hasn't forgiven anyone involved in her exit debacle.
I hate to harp on about it but sadly, again, I remain convinced that the Today show is burdened with the sagging Lauer brand, and while he has done a stellar job and has had staggering personal success, it is time for him to do the right thing and find something else in life to do. Trust me, both the executive producers and NBC/Universal head honchos will all collectively sigh in relief; the problem just solved itself. Don't give me any nonsense about Willie Geist not being ready - Matt Lauer wasn't ready when he stepped into my man Bryant Gumbel's huge shoes in 1997! For a long time Matt was wearing the shoes, but Gumbel's massive footprint left a very big shadow around his feet.
It's a job you have to settle into and grow into - almost no one is truly "ready" before they are dumped into the deep end - perhaps with the exception of the best bit of casting ever done on that show, when the remarkable Meredith Vieira was hired. So, we need to exit the fading star, get our boy Willie into the hotseat, and then decide whether Savannah can keep up with him. I have my doubts on that, but will be happy to be surprised if the chemistry is electric on camera.
Come on NBC. Drop all of the distractions, or tone them down to where they belong - the 9am slot. Get back to a two anchor desk, and make that first hour serious in tone and brimming with content, saving the candyfloss fluff for the stay-at-home folks who want entertained at 8:30-10:00am. At 7am in the morning, we want news, news and then more news. Do I need to remind you that at 7am on weekdays, your audience is not the kids, nor barely even the 30-somethings - it is a mature audience looking for information, not nonsense coming in via social media and the Orange room.
I can go back to work on Monday more easily now, truly feeling that I no longer miss much when I don't see my Today show, and at least for now, the CBS (particularly on Saturday and Sunday mornings) and ABC crews rule the morning show ecosystem as far as I am concerned. You only have to spend a few minutes in the company of Biana Golodryga and Dan Harris, or Charlie Rose and Gayle King, or the stellar Anthony Mason and former co-host Rebecca Jarvis to feel the genuine warmth in the air - a warmth that is clearly missing in the chilly corridors outside the offices of the Today show.
Remember, NBC, you can pay people all the money you (they!) want to fake it on camera and pretend to be friends in real life, but chemistry cannot be constructed and those who fake it to make it remain just that - fakes. The real thing is abundantly obvious, and the facade is even more evident than that. The Today show franchise remains in crisis, and it is going to be fascinating to see who is going to dig them out of it but more importantly, how they are going to try to do it. Fear not EU peeps, I will of course be keeping you up-to-date with their (lack of) progress! - Kevin Mc ;)
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