Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin set for new morning on NBC’s ‘Today’

When “Today” starts up Monday morning, NBC executives and producers hope it will be like any other broadcast of the long-running AM show.

Of course it won’t. Yes, Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin will no doubt welcome viewers with the best news of the day. But while Melvin has been a regular presence on the show, Monday marks his first appearance in the co-anchor role previously held by Hoda Kotb. The expectation is that viewers won’t blink much of an eye.

“People know and expect what we give them every day,” Melvin said during an interview last week. “We’d be foolish to tamper with it too much.”

Melvin takes the role as “Today” enjoys a new round of momentum. To be sure, the traditional audience for most linear television programs, including venerable, decades-old morning shows, is in secular decline, but “Today” has shown some interesting power. For the past ten weeks, “Today” has captured the most viewers of the three broadcast morning programs, a feat usually awarded to ABC competitor “Good Morning America.” The show, as it typically does, also captured the most viewers between 25 and 54, the demographic most coveted by advertisers. “Today” is enjoying its best ratings streak since April 2012, just before Ann Curry was ousted in an infamous and tearful farewell in June of that year that sparked a backlash from viewers.

In fact, staff turnover at “Today” hasn’t gone so smoothly in recent years. Kotb took the co-anchor role in 2018 after a controversy surrounding her longtime predecessor, Matt Lauer, forced NBC to remove him from the job. Guthrie joined the show after producers determined that Lauer and then co-anchor Curry had not established a good on-air relationship. In the process, “Today” relinquished its status as the nation’s most-watched morning show to “GMA.”

It was yesterday.

“We really hope it’s a seamless transition,” Guthrie said during last week’s interview. Kotb will “still be part of the family. People want to see her,” she says, but “Craig has been there every single day and our viewers know him and our crew knows him.”

“Today” likely got a boost from NBC’s successful broadcast last summer of the 2024 Paris Olympics and tends to get a wider audience around the holidays. The weeks leading up to Kotb’s departure have also focused on the programme. Now, Melvin and Guthrie will have to keep the show going as “Today” enters its first quarter — with the colossal Christmas tree that annually draws people to the New York blocks outside “Today’s Studio 1A, gone for another cycle .

“This show has kind of set me up so if anything goes south, it’s going to be my fault,” Melvin says. “They’ve done everything they can do.”

The producers do even more behind the camera. “Today” can’t just try to capture the message attached to single events. The NBC News chief, who oversees all hours of the morning franchise — about 23 hours each week — says her team also keeps a close eye on the basics. “I care about putting on a great show every day and making sure our content is current, relevant and useful to audiences,” said Libby Leist, an executive vice president at NBC News. “We know what our mission is, and Craig and Savanah are the leaders of it.”

Producers have worked to ensure viewers are familiar with the entire “Today” staff, which includes Al Roker, Carson Daly, Dylan Dreyer, Sheinelle Jones, Jenna Bush Hager, Peter Alexander, Laura Jarrett and Willie Geist. “Our anchors are really gelled together. They’ve been together a long time,” says Leist. “This is a very consistent show.”

There’s also a lot of attention to connecting “Today” with the local stations that show it, she says, with a team in place to uncover stories that might resonate strongly in a particular region or market. Making affiliates aware of such things can spur audiences tuned in to local morning news to stick around for “Today.” “Those relationships are so important,” says Leist.

Melvin and Guthrie expect to play a role in weaving more sports into “Today,” a reflection not only of NBC’s ties to the NFL but those it will begin to establish in the fall when it gets new rights to show NBA- game as part of a new 11-year pact. Melvin is expected to travel to Milan in the coming weeks to report on the status of preparations a year away for the 2026 Winter Olympics – also part of NBC’s sports portfolio.

The show “does more sports than we used to in the old days,” says Guthrie, who viewers may recall has interviewed tennis great Roger Federer on several occasions. “I want to highlight even more of those kinds of stories,” says Melvin. Look for Guthrie and Melvin to perform during halftime Sunday night on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”

Melvin’s new job at “Today” comes after years of working for NBC News. For several years, Melvin anchored a daytime show on MSNBC along with various “Today” assignments, and he expects to continue appearing on the program at 9:00 a.m.

In the earlier days of his career, he says, “I didn’t think this was in the cards.” Working at WIS in his hometown of Columbia, South Carolina, Melvin recalls, “my dream was to get to a bigger market,” which back then might have been Atlanta or Chicago. Traveling to a new job out of town was a big deal. “My whole family is in South Carolina – siblings, parents and uncles all lived within a 15 mile radius.” When he left for a new job at WRC, NBC’s station in Washington, DC, “my grandmother asked me if I was sure about the decision. I was fully prepared to retire there.”

Now you can argue that the new morning couple has miles left. “Today” is branching out beyond its traditional morning slot with digital expansions, including a streaming outlet and a new wellness app. “We’ve really tried to meet viewers where they are,” Guthrie says. Monday’s greeting will likely serve as the first of many.