Network morning show host chairs don't come around very often, but when they do, they're easily the most prized seats in the house.
Despite the well-worn problems facing network television news and entertainment (sports is a different story), morning shows have remained beacons of relative stability. Anchors tend to stay, well, anchored, for years. And morning shows, with their lifestyle focus, are still the cash cows that help subsidize other, less profitable news programs.
So when changes are made, to the host rotation, to the format, to any piece of the morning show puzzle, it's a big deal.
Hoda Kotb's exit from NBC is looming Today is arguably the biggest change in morning show schedules in years, and the network will have a tough task not only filling seats on two very different shows (the two prime hours of Today and 10 a.m., very different), but they also decide how they want to look and feel. Kotb will move to a new role at NBC News in 2025.
While each network morning show has since expanded its talent rosters beyond the core anchors to include a broader group of regulars, the core anchor teams have remained stable for years. The last big change came three years ago, in 2021, when Nate Burleson joined CBS This Morning (that's enough CBS Morning) as co-host alongside Gayle King and Tony Dkoupil.
It's worth noting that King inked a new deal with CBS earlier this month.
At ABC Good morning Americathe three main hosts of Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan have been in place since 2016.
Kotb's exit early next year will force NBC to decide how it wants to move forward.
It's worth noting Today is the network's last morning show to have two primary co-hosts, with ABC and CBS moving to a three-anchor setup (again, all shows have a larger supporting cast that includes weather anchors, news anchors and other contributors).
NBC could very well use his exit to change the format to a three-anchor setup as well. Today Meteorologist Dylan Dreyer told E! Thursday night that “I don't think if they appointed anyone in our core group of people it would be surprising… We all fill in along the way when someone is out.”
While this is true, some within NBC see Craig Melvin, who has been on the show for six years, as almost certain to be part of whatever format the show moves forward.
In many ways, the hardest role to fill is at 10 a.m., where Kotb has been a co-host for 17 years and has teamed with Jenna Bush Hager since 2019. Even though the show is part of Todayit's closer in look and feel to a more traditional syndicated daytime hour, where the on-air relationship between co-hosts is most important.
NBC now needs to find someone to join Bush Hager, and while there have been replacements over the years, getting that role right is critical.
This is especially true with CBS Morning I've decided to add a third hour next week. While Today launched its third hour in 2000 (and it's fourth hour in 2007), and GMA added a third hour in 2018 (now works in the early afternoon as GMA3), until now CBS had kept its flagship morning schedule to two hours.
CBS Mornings Plusas it's called, will be hosted by Tony Dokoupil and Adriana Diaz, and while it will be on TV in a handful of local markets, it will also be streamed on the CBS News streaming channel, a big change in how morning shows are distributed.
Morning show hosts are widely regarded as having the most lucrative deals in network news (ex Today host Matt Lauer was making more than $20 million a year when he was fired), but TV's economic changes are likely to also be a factor in what comes next.
For hosts like Roberts and Stephanopoulos, the network paired their on-air deals with production deals, allowing them to produce shows for ABC, Hulu and other platforms. Journalists like Dokoupil and Bush Hager have multiple roles over multiple hours.
In the network news landscape, there is a growing desire to move things digital and reduce the eight-figure deals that were once common. If an eight-figure deal is needed to get a deal done, it's often paired with a larger role.
It's a morning show that serves as a corollary to the night scene, where downsizing has been the norm in recent years. Hosts like Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers have survived by doing more than just putting on shows for their networks, including producing other programs and participating in network events.
And the changes come as morning show ratings have been surprisingly competitive in recent months, with GMA usually number one in terms of total viewers but Today leader in the core adult 25-54 demo. CBS Morning he also panned GMA has topped the ABC program ratings several times this year.
The closeness of ratings, combined with the importance of morning shows to their respective networks, highlights how significant a change is coming for NBC. Kotb was one of the faces of Today for years, and when Lauer was fired in 2017, she easily stepped into the co-host role alongside Savannah Guthrie. NBC has internal people who could do the same (including Melvin, Willie Geist, Sheinelle Jones, Peter Alexander and others).
But with so much at stake, the network could very well use his exit as an opportunity to reevaluate the show's structure and usher in a new era of morning show competition.