Robin Red

Their is no urgency to have a permanent Saturday anchor so it does not matter at this point who fills in or not.

This look like it might happen and the 3rd hour will be revamped. It is unknown though who would be replaced. I think Geist will still be a fill in for Matt Lauer though. It is rumored that Geist might replace Lauer if his contract is not renewed.

Congrats to Lester, I watch his newscast every night. I think his demotion was the best thing for him, clearly he was meant to do bigger things. A guy that good is meant for the evening news. NBC are the ones that can't take him for granted. There was unofficial rumors from insiders before the Williams fiasco, that Lester was thinking about stepping down from his weekend duties and possibly leave NBC. A history of mismanaging very good talent, he was overlooked a long time at NBC, he should've got the job before Brian Williams got to ten years and spread his poison. Lester is truly a shining diamond and has brought credibilty back to NBC. There are not many anchors at NBC that have the collective likability and appeal that Lester has with so many people. Lester appeals to so many people in different walks of life, that is so rare and really special.

He is movie star handsome I love that young picture of him. Cool read about Lester he is doing a great job on Nightly News. I don't even miss Brian Williams, to me it seemed like Lester had that chair for a long time. I like what he said when he said "bosses are not your friends" that is true and that he understands he is working in a cold hearted business. Unfortunately in news business profit has gotten in the way of paying dues and Lester got the chair by being the best in the business. I hope NBC never mistreats Lester Holt, he seems like a good person and in a cold business like that it is easy for bosses to exploit and mismanage the nice people. They don't care about your resume unless it translate to their bottom dollar. Rooting for Lester Holt, very good article.

Spot on with everything you said. David Gregory was a real possibillity, cause it was no secret he wanted the job and was willing to step on toes to do it. Gregory did not want the Meet The Press job and wanted to use MTP job as a way to position his way to the Today show. Lester was a good host, he brought class to the Today show which is something the show has been lacking for a long time. I don't know if he ever really wanted the position but he was in a good place where it was his for taking if NBC kept Curry and let Lauer out his contract then Lester would have taken over and most of the NBC Ann Curry disaster would not have happened. After the Curry scandal, they made Geist a full time Today show member and by default he was considered to be Matt's replacement. As time went on Lester slowly moved away from Today to focus more Dateline and did eventually become heir apparent to Nightly News. He preserved his hard news roots and it did eventually pay off in becoming the new Nightly News anchor. Geist is more a product of nepotism, I don't think he will ever be a longterm fixture. If he does become a Today show host, I don't think the show will not revolve around him the same it revolved around Matt Lauer. I highly doubt Matt will be willing to let out his contract. He could be angling for more money, my speculation. He is already overpaid to the max and does not even work full time.

Before Willie, the real front runner was Lester Holt. He was already the host of Weekend Today and he had the "it factor" necessary to become a full time host. He is very likable, solid credentials, has chemistry with his co-anchors could transition well from hard news to entertainment. He was the viewers favorite on the Today show. Geist had more tv time after Lester was promoted to full time Dateline host. Before Willie came, Lester Holt was the fill in and on the weekday show quite often, when he got the Dateline host position he slowly transitioned away from the Today show. David Gregory was on shaky ground cause of his MTP job and eventually was fired and Geist got the position by default.

Credibility for being a morning show host has gone down the drain. It does not mean much anymore to become a host of the morning show. They got Carson Daly who promoted music videos as his claim to fame and now he is reporting news about heads of state. Lauer has not been high standard either, compared to Bryant Gumbel he is a lightweight. This has been the same discussion people were having back in 2013 when people assumed that Matt Lauer is not going renew his contract. There have constant back and forths on who can take his spot. People thought Willie Geist would be the logical choice but his wooden personality mighty not work. Today believes that bigger name might mean bigger ratings. Their main focus is go back to being a more infotainment show, their main focus is to compete with GMA. This was their main picks outside of NBC Anderson Cooper- I doubt that he would want to be tied to those crazy hours and he is a staple at CNN and contributes to 60 Minutes. Josh Elliot-- they pulled him from ABC with promises that he could do the Today show but all fell to the waste side Don Lemon-- He would make sense and he has the personality to do the entertainment part of the show. David Gregory--highly doubt NBC would want him back but was well liked by viewers anytime he would fill in. Ryan Seacrest-- NBC showed interest and he is part of the NBC Universal family, and his contract with American Idol is going to expire . His name recognition makes him alluring for NBC.

The 3rd hour of the Today show is no different from the first 2 hours. Today show wants so go a more infotainment format that has been their desire since they were mulling about Lauer's contract back in 2014. They only kept the current format cause it suits his strengths which is more about interviewing. Willie Geist does not have the broad appeal to become a Today show host, he is a solid anchor but not broad enough appeal and wooden personality. A Morning Joe format might be good for him if were to become the host. Their real intention is to get either Ryan Seacrest or Billy Bush to take over Matt's spot. I am thinking Ryan Seacrest. Matt Lauer's contract will end this year, and American Idol will end this year. This will give him the perfect timing transition into the new role if he were to be picked.

Savannah at $12 million, nah with the limited amount of years she has been there, she does not have name recognition like Robin Roberts to be making that kind of money. Networks have been trying to cut on news anchor salaries. She has to be making $3 million dollars easily at the maximum.

This is Lauer's angle, he did this back when Ann Curry was on the Today show, this was how he got $25 million dollars. He is going to use the increase in ratings as a way to convince executives probably that if they want him to stay, they will have to give him more money. When Curry was there he convinced executives to choose between him and Curry, they choose him and scapegoated Ann Curry. I think Matt Lauer is not as key a player anymore on NBC as NBC likes to make him think he is, they have an in-depth talent pool and with Lester Holt's recent appointment at Nightly News, the news division seems to be in good shape . Lester's NN high ratings sends a ripple effect to Today show's ratings. Keep in mind Holt used to be on the Today show so some of those Nightly News viewers are probably carrying over to the Today show.

I don't know if Willie Geist will be a ratings a draw, I think this weekend thing will be a good trial for him but at best he can be a good back up. I heard four months ago according to some media magazine that Today show is interested in hiring Billy Bush from Access Hollywood to the Today show. They want the Today show to go into a more entertainment driven format and Billy Bush was one of those chosen as prospective host. If Willie becomes the new host, I suspect he will keep his Sunday job nowadays, weekday anchors are working weekends now due to budget reasons. Look at Chuck Todd who is working six days a week. Today show has enough people where they don't need the show to revolved around one person once Matt is gone. I suspect that once Matt is gone, the Today show will revolve more around the team aspect then just two anchors. If Willie does not work on Sundays with new host job then they can probably cancel Weekend Today and build a new morning show.

I suspect that as soon as Willie Geist's show is launched which they say will be in April, then Erica Hill will leave. Maybe her and the Shenielle will swap hosting back and fourth. From what the report said, it seems like she her contract won't be renewed with NBC and they are going to part ways.

I enjoyed the Lester Holt and Campbell Brown team, pleasant to watch and not over the top. They had a more cerebral focus. You can tell that they were legit journalists doing their jobs hosting a morning show more than personalities who are reading the news which is what we see on the Weekday Today. Lester Holt tenure was the best era in Weekend Today's history; I don't think they can ever replicate the success of his era which is why they are doing the necessary changes by giving Willie Geist his own show. I think it will be a good change and good way to break the format. I don't think CNN would want her back, they are doing fine without her she ain't no Diane Sawyer or Martha Raddatz. She is a small fish in a big pond when it comes looking for national news jobs. Her inconsistent career hurts her chances of ever getting another top anchor job. At best she can be a substitute anchor in NY and become an anchor in local news in a small medium market will be best for her. At her age stability is more important then a big paycheck. She should stop shopping for national news jobs check her ego out the door and look for a medium market level job. She should be smart like her former co-worker Russ Mitchell from CBS who knew that national news was not for him and became an anchor in a medium size tv station in Ohio.

Campbell Brown was probably the best female weekend Today anchor, and Amy Robach was the better female weekend Today anchor post Campbell Brown era. What Weekend Today show did wrong was letting Jenna push her workouts and they created a monster with her hyper self promotion. She became obssessed with the workouts and wanted Lester to partake in the workouts which was a big no no! NBC would have avoided trouble if they hired a Saturday anchor from within the NBC talent pool like Kate Snow, Sara Haines or Veronica de la Cruz. It was quite a gamble that NBC took when they hired Hill to Weekend Today. Erica Hill was demoted for a reason, she is disconnected, her problem besides her blandness was that she lacks warmth and patronizing attitude towards her co-anchors.

Go on the Today show facebook page, viewers never warmed up to her. Jenna had her share viewers not liking her but people like the free dynamic between Lester, Jenna and Dylan but Erica was like "other woman" or "killjoy". Weekend Today was doing fine with female rotation, Jenna was the main anchor Sunday anchor, people wanted a Saturday anchor to be Kate Snow or Tamron Hall.

It may seem harsh but it is a cold hard reality in a cold hearted business. She is not network news material, no delivery skills and comes across as a snob. When she was on Anderson Cooper program, her presence became an annoyance in the end. Focus groups did not connect to her possibly cause she was gone if it was working she would've stayed at CNN. Hill was one of people,viewers could not connect to, she had that problem at CBS and it transfered over to NBC. She would be considered to old for local news especially the big markets like NYC, Chicago &Philly. At best she would qualify for a low level market in a blue collar town.

39 years old is old, she has been to all the big networks, was a weekday anchor and now working as a weekend anchor..not good at 39 years old. Believe me, the industry treats women different by the time she reaches 40 years of age, they start pushing them out and their hiring chances slow down for the big anchoring gigs. It is still television, and investment. If they see a pic and resume of on air talent, they would much rather hire a 28 year old upstart that the network can invest good amount of years on or would they take a 40 year old woman who has had inconsistent career and not a ratings draw. A reason why Chris Jansing was never promoted cause she was too old to be a network anchor, lucky for her she is intelligent and she works as a White House correspondent . Women like Savannah Guthrie, Erin Burnett, Norah O Donnell, Tamron Hall, Amy Robach all managed to get their careers together before turning age 40. Now they have a stable hours and have a career. Erica Hill has had the big hosting jobs but never was a success at it.

Nah! She is a certified ratings disaster. That is a bad reputation to have in the industry when you flop in all your anchor jobs. She has little value now and she is old in television standards for a female anchor. There is no way CNN and CBS will waste their time taking her back. She should quit anchoring. The industry is too fast for her, she seems like a person who would do well with a 9-5 job.

The ratings are down on Weekend Today. She has been a weak host through out her tenure on the show. When she first came to Weekend Today, people thought she might take Savannah's job but viewers never warmed up to her. She was never considered a favorite nor was she anything special on CBS.

People on the Today show facebook were saying how much they dislike how Today show portrayed Iowa. The show, all the way from the studio design was portraying Iowans as hillbillies instead of smart people.

Jose Diaz Balart comes from quite a family, they are like the Cuban political mafia. His aunt was married to Fidel Castro and his father was a Cuban politician. His brother work in Congress and I don't know if his marketability will help him overall nationally to an audience with how many political ties he has with his family. It does not help having family members as politicians at the same time trying to get people to be persuaded and trust him as a news anchor/commentator. NBC needs to tread lightly on this guy.

Jose Diaz Balart filled in Weekend Today last week. He did a nice job, he tends to use his accent when pronouncing Spanish names. I still believe he is part of the quota, since Lester became first African American solo news anchor, NBC now has a woman and now they need an Hispanic.

Viewers don't like the 4 people at one desk, too distracting especially when serious news is happening, if anything Today show is going back to the old format when it was just two people are one desk during the first half hour. To get the news out, you don't need four people and I bet viewers got tired of the joking in the beginning.

In stability and overpaid contracts, I suspect is ruining KYW.

I agree, Craig Melvin is not that good, he is kind of immature and does have the right demeanor.The Weekend show has been borefest with Erica what was NBC thinking when they hired her. The show has no life, and the anchors are trying to force that they have chemistry with each other. Holt era of Weekend Today was the best and can't be topped.