Super Bowl Update

In today's edition of Headlines, I told you that NBC was moving Today executive producer Jim Bell to NBC Sports to oversee the company's Olympic coverage.

Now we know who will replace him at the network's struggling morning show - Today's senior broadcast producer, Don Nash - and that Nash will report to Rock Center executive producer Alexandra Wallace, who has been appointed Executive in Charge of the show.

“Don Nash deserves to be at the helm of Today. He is a beloved member of the Today family who brings vision, commitment and a deep familiarity to all aspects of the broadcast,” said NBC News president Steve Capus. “The formidable individual talents of Alex, Don and the Today leadership are now combined and I’m confident our team is well positioned for success.”

We'll see.

The E.W. Scripps Co.'s television stations - which dropped Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy in favor of two new shows Scripps created in-house - are doing well with those new shows, the company says.  Acknowledging that ratings are lower, Scripps VP Bob Sullivan says they're "almost to goal" with Let’s Ask America and The List. [TVNewsCheck]

The late Tonight Show host was one of TV's most private people, but the public may finally get to learn more about Johnny Carson now that his estate has given its blessing for a film based on Carson's life. [The Washington Post]

After presiding over Today's first ratings losses in more than a decade and a half, as well as the firing of Ann Curry that some blame for those losses, Jim Bell is getting ... a promotion!? Yes, Bell will now be executive producer of NBCUniversal's coverage of the Olympics.  He led the network's record-breaking but widely-panned coverage of the London Games earlier this year. [The Hollywood Reporter]

NBC News President Steve Capus announced Thursday that Erica Hill will be joining Weekend Today as co-anchor. The weekend anchor team of Lester Holt, Hill, Jenna Wolfe, and Dylan Dreyer officially debuts Saturday.

Hill, who briefly served as co-anchor of CBS This Morning, was replaced there earlier this year by Norah O'Donnell.  CBS reportedly tried to find a suitable niche for Hill but couldn't.

NBC had no such problem, Capus explained.
 

“Erica’s extraordinary track record as a journalist has proven that she can cover everything from hard news to pop culture with ease and professionalism,” he said.

Hill has been also been named an NBC News national correspondent. She will report on all platforms of NBC News including Today, NBC Nightly News and MSNBC. Hill will co-anchor both Saturday and Sunday editions of Weekend Today alongside Lester Holt. Holt has served as co-anchor of Weekend Today since 2003 and is the longest-running anchor of the broadcast.

Jenna Wolfe has been named news anchor of Weekend Today and will expand her role to both Saturday and Sunday editions. Wolfe has been with the morning broadcast since 2007. In addition, Wolfe will continue as Today correspondent, reporting feature stories for both the weekday and weekend broadcasts.

Meteorologist Dylan Dreyer was named weather anchor of Weekend Today upon joining NBC News in September. Dreyer will remain in that role, also providing weekend weather reports on MSNBC.

Prior to joining NBC News, Hill served as co-host of CBS News' CBS This Morning in 2012 and The Early Show in 2011. She was news anchor of The Early Show in 2010, while also co-hosting The Early Show Saturday from 2008 to 2010. Hill joined The Early Show Saturday while working at CNN, where she served as anchor and correspondent for CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 from 2008 to 2010.

Hill also spent seven years at CNN, joining the network at its Atlanta headquarters in 2003. She served in various roles at CNN and HLN. From 2006 to 2008, she was the anchor of HLN's Prime News with Erica Hill, a live two-hour news and interview program. She co-anchored Prime News Tonight from 2005 to 2006, and served as national correspondent for CNN Newsource in Washington in 2004.

ABC's Good Morning America is about to win its third week in a row in both total viewers and the all-important group of viewers who are ages 25 to 54, and the folks at NBC's Today are left to wonder just what happened.

Claire Atkinson of the New York Post wastes no time speculating - she jumps right in with both feet and writes, simply, that it's a direct result of "the curse of Ann Curry."

But is it really that simple?  Maybe not.  While Curry's ouster was unpopular with viewers, it's by far not the only problem the show has.

There's evident discord among those who remain.  Al Roker made that clear when he quipped about the show's "tradition" of "throw(ing) one of us under the bus."  NBC had to quickly put out that fire, but few really bought the explanation.

And then there was last week.  While ABC and CBS took their viewers to the moment of silence for the September 11 victims, NBC blithely showed Kardashian mama Kris Jenner talking about her latest boob job instead.  And then refused to apologize ... until NBC News president Steve Capus did so - to the affiliates - anyway.

In his apology, Capus took great pains to point out how "brilliant" Savannah Guthrie (Curry's replacement) and Matt Lauer are together.  If that were really true, there would be no reason to point it out. Others would be doing so ... yet no one is, has or will, because they're really not.

Meanwhile, over at ABC, despite the absence of Robin Roberts (who is dealing with a serious health issue), GMA continues to roll.  Why?  They've taken adversity and turned it into a positive, through the use of celebrity guest co-hosts, and continuing to do what they do seamlessly and without strife.

CBS, too, seems to have finally found a niche for itself with CBS This Morning.  While the show is still behind both ABC and GMA, it's making strides, and with good reason - while the combination of Norah O'Donnell, Charlie Rose and Gayle King may seem strange, it just plain works.

Maybe NBC needs to watch ... and learn.

On Tuesday, while the rest of the world watched the moment of silence in remembrance of those lost in the attacks of September 11, 2001, NBC's Today show instead showed an interview with Kardashian mama Kris Jenner.  It was, as I wrote Tuesday, "Unbelievable.  Simply unbelievable."

But if viewers are looking from an apology from NBC, they won't find one, because the network has said that it won't offer one.

In the tradition of NBC's left hand not knowing what its right hand is doing, however, there's this:  NBC News president Steve Capus sent an apology in the form of a memo to the network's affiliates.  Radar Online got hold of the memo and you can read it in full by clicking here.

Capus wrote that the decision to put Jenner on instead of the moment of silence was an "editorial call."  He also took great pains to point out "how brilliant Savannah [Guthrie] and Matt [Lauer] are together" (they're not) and how NBC News is "mindful" of the "legacy" of 9/11 and NBC's "responsibilities" to cover it (and failed anyway).

I can use those three words, too, Mr. Capus.

Viewers are becoming more and more mindful of the growing legacy of ruin that seems to be spreading from NBC's entertainment division to the news division.  What you and your people need to do is take your precious responsibilities seriously and fix that.

Now.

Otherwise there's no telling what we might see next September 11 instead of the moment of silence.

Unbelievable.  Simply unbelievable.

It looks like the replacement of Ann Curry with Savannah Guthrie at NBC's Today show hasn't worked out quite like the folks at the Peacock Network had hoped.

Last week - Guthrie's first full week on the program - ABC's Good Morning America delivered a fairly decisive blow, beating Today by some 357,000 viewers, according to early numbers from Nielsen.  The final figures, to come later this week, may change ... but not by enough to give NBC back the win.

It's ABC's third straight weekly win over NBC in the morning, and the biggest one for GMA in more than 17 years.

You may recall that Today had held down an astounding 852 weeks (that's a stretch way back to 1995, folks) as the top-rated morning show on TV before falling to GMA several times earlier this year. NBC execs all but called it a fluke, saying they were satisfied with the team they had in place and all was well.

Then they shunted Curry aside.

This time around, "We are incredibly confident in the new Today anchor team," executive producer Jim Bell told the AP's Frazier Moore. "Although it's premature to look at one week of unofficial numbers and draw any conclusions, we just made a big change that we didn't take lightly, and we are in this for the long run."

But we've heard that before, too.

Of course, it's still early, and anything could happen.  Stay tuned ...