Morning television, like other old line media institutions, has been knocked down a few pegs on the pop culture totem pole by the Internet age. But that doesn't make its workings any less interesting. The people we wake up to were always supposed to be idolized versions of ourselves -- not for nothing is the Today Show's cast called "America's First Family." A humanizing look at these stars and those who manage them -- which is what the New York Times's Brian Stelter gives us in Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV -- unravels that myth amidst the disorder of a ratings upheaval.
The centerpiece of this book is the recent history of the Today Show, specifically its decline in popularity amidst a switch in one of its two anchors. Ann Curry, who had spent fifteen years as the news reader on the program before taking over next to Matt Lauer in 2011, was fired just a year into the lead role in a series of events known as "Operation Bambi" orchestrated by executive producer Jim Bell.
Curry, by most accounts in this book, was not up to the job. She was gaffe-prone and often awkward, unable to sell her co-star Lauer or allow him to sell her -- unable, in other words, to do her part in the married couple concept of co-hosting. But she was also a respected foreign journalist who had the point of view now espoused by Sheryl Sandburg in Lean In. "Considering that all my bosses -- all my bosses -- have been men, I have wondered what has happened to this hope for full equality in America," she told a women-in-media luncheon. That attitude is part of what motivated legions of Curry's (mostly female) fans to skewer NBC and Lauer on social media after she was dismissed.
Lauer, of course, wanted nowhere near this sideshow. A reserved personality, he was doing freelance and trimming trees when he was hired to host the New York market's lead-in to Today in the 1980s. Eventually he fulfilled his goal of taking over the headline show in 1997. Now in his broadcasting prime, Lauer's celebrity was called into question as the show's ratings bled and it was overtaken by rival Good Morning America. This book reminds us that there's much more to someone with a public persona than meets the eye. Just as Lauer could veer between high-brow and low-brow in the potpourri of morning news, he exuded discretion but also left some NBC executives convinced of rumors he had had extra-marital affairs. Perhaps his self-presentation finally wore thin.
In his uncovering of Operation Bambi and search for how much of a role Lauer played in Curry's ouster, Stelter discounts the fact that NBC had a ready replacement in Savannah Guthrie. With a striking look and quirky sense of humor that put her beyond "girl next door," Guthrie was in the right place at the right time. After covering the White House for a brief period, she had the gumption to ask out of that prestigious position -- "You can never feel that you know everything, that you've talked to everyone, that you have enough sources," she admits -- and was rewarded with the 9 o'clock hour of Today, prime position to be promoted to the main show.
Stelter gives vignettes of CBS's This Morning and MSNBC's Morning Joe, but most of the rest is devoted to Today's archenemy, Good Morning America. GMA finally snapped Today's 16-year weekly viewership streak in April 2012, a surreal accomplishment to those at ABC who had built up an inferiority complex. The saga of Robin Roberts, the GMA anchor who took a leave of absence to get a bone marrow transplant, buoyed her colleagues while at the same time making them wary of going too far in turning her health into a show theme. Perhaps the most unlikely star in the morning TV world is her co-anchor George Stephanopoulos, who after starting in Democratic presidential politics now found himself broadcasting shark attacks and missing persons stories. The absorption of hard news with salacious fodder is something that Today struggled with (fed by Lauer's disgust) while GMA happily obliged. In the end, that's probably why ABC finally pulled in more viewers.
Stelter is a deeply-sourced media reporter who founded a notable television news website as a teenager. He gives a behind-the-scenes narrative in the tradition of veteran Times TV writer Bill Carter, though mars it with blog-style colloquialisms. Top of the Morning is a page-turner because it captures the thrilling ride of a business that revolves around public grace and private anxiety. This duality (combined with chronic lack of sleep) threatens a meltdown around every corner. Just like anyone else in the morning, these people are never really themselves.
