Morning TV Veers From News to Frills

MORNING TV VEERS FROM NEWS TO FRILLS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Alessandra Stanley]
Morning programs like “Today” on NBC and “The View” on ABC are the modern equivalents of the old Barbizon Hotel for Women, a frilly haven where men were not allowed above the first floor — or here, after the first hour — and viewers are treated to diet tips, ambush makeovers, cancer health scares, relationship counseling and, of course, shopping. And the fourth hour of “Today,” which was introduced this fall, has blurred the distinction between consumer news and product promotion even further. Especially now, in the Christmas holiday marketing frenzy, it is sometimes hard to tell the NBC program from those on ShopNBC or QVC. Product placement is hardly a new phenomenon, and the morning shows long ago mastered the quid pro quo of daily television: Actors give interviews timed to their latest projects; authors are recruited as experts just as their books hit the stores. Oprah, Ellen and the women of “The View” specialize in audience giveaways — anything from a Dodge Caravan to a $150 gift certificate toward a Barbour wax jacket. But the fourth hour of “Today” has tipped the balance of the program: The more newsy first hour, with the hosts Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, and Al Roker on the weather, is front-loaded with information and interviews with public officials and, of course, with husbands of missing wives like Drew Peterson, and people who survive freak accidents (lightning bolts or nail-gun injuries). That first hour seems increasingly at odds with the long, tranquilizing estrogen stretch that follows.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/arts/television/04watc.html?ref=todays...
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