Ryan Seacrest
America could soon be waking up to Ryan Seacrest. After months of rumors that NBC execs were exploring hiring the American Idol host as an eventual replacement for Matt Lauer on Today, significant conversations are now taking place about making it happen as part of a larger deal between Seacrest and NBC parent company Comcast.
While the mention of Seacrest's name is likely to make TV-news purists cringe, Today has a history of hiring anchors without serious...
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Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake
TV Guide Network will look at the monumental moments that have affected today's television landscape in a five-part series starting Sunday.
Among the biggest: Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction," the Van Doren "Quiz Show" scandal, and how reality shows such as Survivor and American Idol launched a new genre.
Journalists such as Tom Brokaw discuss the debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, the O.J. Simpson trial and the birth of CNN. Larry King explains how his talk show paved the way for the...
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The Today Show
It may seem like Internet has been around forever, but this video from 1994 really demonstrates how far technology has come. In the clip, former Today show co-anchors Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric and correspondent Elizabeth Vargas try to figure out what the "@" symbol means, as well as try to define what this new crazy computer network called the "internet" really is. "What do you write to it, like, mail?" Gumbel questions. Um, something like that.
Check it out in the video after the jump.
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Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey's been all over the place promoting her new network, OWN. Over the past few weeks, she's granted many, many interviews, ranging from a sit-down with Barbara Walters to posing for the cover of Parade. To little surprise, millions tuned in to the channel's Jan. 1 debut.
Oprah Winfrey to be the first guest on Piers Morgan Tonight
Still, running a network is a big new business for The Queen of Daytime — and she's got more hawking to do! But is there anything left we don't know about Oprah? During the Television Critics Association winter preview on Thursday, Lady O descended a room of TV reporters, and here are 10 things we learned, in no particular order:
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Barbara Walters
Ever wonder what The View would be like with a little testosterone on the panel? You may soon find out.
Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "I actually support gay marriage"
View creators and executive producers Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie are developing a unisex spinoff of the women's daytime talk show that would include ...
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Bryant Gumbel
Bryant Gumbel underwent cancer surgery two months ago to remove a malignant tumor in his lung, he announced on Tuesday's Live with Regis and Kelly.
Gumbel, who filled in for Regis Philbin, made the announcement after telling Kelly Ripa he could not dance due to the surgery and a "note from my doctor."
See photos of Gumbel through the years
"They opened up my chest. They took a malignant tumor, part of my lung and some other ...
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Usain Bolt
Fans of sports magazine shows get a double bonus Tuesday night with the return of Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel and a new episode of ESPN's year-old E: 60. On Real Sports (10 pm/ET, HBO), Gumbel travels to Jamaica to interview Olympic gold-medal-winning sprinter Usain Bolt. Though the world-record speedster isn't a big talker, the piece offers a nice snapshot of his life both before and after the Beijing Games. Bolt tells Gumbel...
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Bryant Gumbel by Jason Kempin/WireImage.com
Bryant Gumbel has told the NFL Network he won't return for another season as play-by-play man in the booth during games.Gumbel has called games for two seasons and was panned by critics from the start. NFL Network did not indicate if Gumbel's broadcast partner, Cris Collinsworth, would return."We've agreed that we'd all be better served going in different directions," Gumbel said. "There are a lot of talented people at NFL Network. I thank them, I wish them well, and I have no doubt that they will be very successful going forward." —J.R. Whalen
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My favorite TV moment this week (granted, I've been on the road and haven't watched a lot) occurred early Wednesday morning, as Matt Lauer defused the mawkish sentiment on the Today set in the wake of Katie Couric's long-awaited announcement that she would be leaving soon for CBS.
"Also coming up in this half hour..." Lauer quipped, as the Today crew (a great group, as I can attest to from the experience of being on the show a handful of times) broke into laughter.
What I loved about that gag was how it underscored the fact that life on Today would go on, no doubt quite robustly, after the Katie Couric era ends. (There have been so many: the Bryant Gumbel-Jane Pauley era; the Barbara Walters-Hugh Downs era; and so on).
This is a historic shift, no question, and shouldn't be underestimated even as it's overanaly
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CBS' The Early Show
There probably isn't anyone on Earth who has produced more hours of morning television than Steve Friedman. In two stints and 10 years of producing NBC's Today, he worked with Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley, Bryant Gumbel, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer. He devised the show's street-level studio in Rockefeller Plaza, which has become a major Manhattan attraction. He led CBS' effort to become a serious player in morning TV when he launched The Early Show with Gumbel and Jane Clayson in 1999. The show has never challenged Today or ABC's Good Morning America in the ratings, but it has become a significant profit center for CBS News. Friedman followed pal Gumbel out of CBS in 2002, but the network's current news president Sean McManus has brought him back — as vice president in charge of morning broadcasts — in the hopes that Friedman can take The Early Show to the next level. The Biz talked with him about how
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