Editing Today (American TV program) (section)

===Former staff===
''Today'' anchors were termed as "Communicators" on the program's inception. Creator Pat Weaver envisioned a person whose responsibilities would go beyond the bounds of traditional sit-down news anchors. The Communicator would interview, report, moderate dialogue and generally tie the show together into a coherent whole.<ref>National Broadcasting Company, ''Today'' promotional material, 1951.</ref> Garroway and his successors have all followed that model, with little variation. Now, the hosts are expected to do much the same, and on any given day will talk with correspondents, newsmakers and lifestyle experts; introduce and close each half-hour, conduct special segments (such as cooking or fashion) and go on-assignment to host the program from different locations. Although the "Communicator" nomenclature has since dropped out of favor, the job remains largely the same.

====Anchors====
Including Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin, nine men and eight women have served as primary ''Today'' hosts since the program's inception:<ref>{{cite book |title=This is Today: A Window On Our Times |first=Eric |last=Mink |publisher=Andrews McMeel Publishing |year=2003}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+Co-Anchor Pairings
!Years
!Anchor 1
!
!Anchor 2
!
|-
|1952–1961
|[[Dave Garroway]]
|[[File:Dave Garroway signoff of Peace.jpg|frameless|124x124px]]
| -
| -
|-
|1961–1962
|[[John Chancellor]]
|[[File:John Chancellor White House1970.jpg|frameless|119x119px]]
| -
| -
|-
|1962–1971
|[[Hugh Downs]]
|[[File:Hugh Downs 1972.JPG|frameless|131x131px]]
| -
| -
|-
|1971–1974
|[[Frank McGee (journalist)|Frank McGee]]
|[[File:Today show panel 1973.JPG|frameless|100x100px]]
| -
| -
|-
|1974–1976
|[[Jim Hartz]]
|
|[[Barbara Walters]]
|[[File:Barbara Walters 1973.JPG|frameless|131x131px]]
|-
|1976–1981
|[[Tom Brokaw]]
|[[File:Jane Pauley Tom Brokaw Today 1977.JPG|frameless|130x130px]]
|[[Jane Pauley]]
|[[File:Jane Pauley 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|-
|1982–1989
|[[Bryant Gumbel]]
|[[File:Bryant Gumbel (48592037377).jpg|frameless|158x158px]]
|[[Jane Pauley]]
|[[File:Jane Pauley 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|-
|1990–1991
|[[Bryant Gumbel]]
|[[File:Bryant Gumbel (48592037377).jpg|frameless|158x158px]]
|[[Deborah Norville]]
|[[File:Deborah Norville, 2011 (cropped).jpg|frameless|150x150px]]
|-
|1991–1997
|[[Bryant Gumbel]]
|[[File:Bryant Gumbel (48592037377).jpg|frameless|158x158px]]
|[[Katie Couric]]
|[[File:Katie Couric VF 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|-
|1997–2006
|[[Katie Couric]]
|[[File:Katie Couric VF 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|[[Matt Lauer]]
|[[File:Matt Lauer 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|-
|2006–2011
|[[Matt Lauer]]
|[[File:Matt Lauer 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|[[Meredith Vieira]]
|[[File:Meredithv.jpg|frameless|132x132px]]
|-
|2011–2012
|[[Matt Lauer]]
|[[File:Matt Lauer 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|[[Ann Curry]]
|[[File:Ann Curry 2012 Shankbone.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|-
|2012–2017
|[[Matt Lauer]]
|[[File:Matt Lauer 2012 Shankbone 2.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|[[Savannah Guthrie]]
|[[File:Savannah Guthrie 2012 Shankbone.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|-
|2018–2025
|[[Savannah Guthrie]]
|[[File:Savannah Guthrie 2012 Shankbone.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|[[Hoda Kotb]]
|[[File:Hoda Kotb.jpg|frameless|115x115px]]
|-
|2025–present
|[[Savannah Guthrie]]
|[[File:Savannah Guthrie 2012 Shankbone.JPG|frameless|125x125px]]
|[[Craig Melvin]]
|[[File:Craig Melvin.png|frameless|125x125px]]
|-
|}
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Dave Garroway]] (January 14, 1952 – June 16, 1961)
* [[John Chancellor]] (July 17, 1961 – September 7, 1962)
* [[Hugh Downs]] (September 10, 1962 – October 8, 1971)
* [[Barbara Walters]] (September 16, 1966 – June 4, 1976)
* [[Frank McGee (journalist)|Frank McGee]] (October 11, 1971 – April 17, 1974)
* [[Jim Hartz]] (July 29, 1974 – August 23, 1976)
* [[Betty Furness]] (June 7, 1976 – October 8, 1976)
* [[Tom Brokaw]] (August 30, 1976 – December 18, 1981)
* [[Jane Pauley]] (October 11, 1976 – December 29, 1989)
* [[Bryant Gumbel]] (January 4, 1982 – January 3, 1997)
* [[Deborah Norville]] (January 8, 1990 – February 22, 1991)
* [[Katie Couric]] (April 5, 1991 – May 31, 2006)
* [[Matt Lauer]] (January 6, 1997 – November 28, 2017)
* [[Meredith Vieira]] (September 13, 2006 – June 8, 2011)
* [[Ann Curry]] (June 9, 2011 – June 28, 2012)
* [[Savannah Guthrie]] (July 9, 2012 – present)
* [[Hoda Kotb]] (January 2, 2018 – January 10, 2025)
* [[Craig Melvin]] (January 13, 2025 – present)

{{div col end}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Host tenures by duration 
!#
!Host 
!Number of years
|-
|1
|Matt Lauer
|20 years, 331 days
|-
|2
|Katie Couric 
|15 years, 60 days
|-
|3
|Bryant Gumbel 
|15 years, 3 days
|-
|4
|Jane Pauley 
|13 years, 82 days
|- style="background:#D4F2CE;"
|5
|Savannah Guthrie
|{{age in years and days|2012|07|09}} (ongoing)  
|-
|6
|Barbara Walters
|9 years, 264 days
|-   
|7
|Dave Garroway
|9 years, 156 days
|-
|8
|Hugh Downs 
|9 years, 30 days
|-
|9
|Hoda Kotb
|7 years, 8 days
|- 
|10
|Tom Brokaw
|5 years, 111 days
|- 
|11 
|Meredith Vieira
|4 years, 269 days
|-
|12
|Frank McGee
|2 years, 189 days
|-
|13
|Jim Hartz
|2 years, 26 days 
|-
|14
|John Chancellor 
|1 year, 52 days
|-
|15
|Deborah Norville
|1 year, 45 days
|-
|16
|Ann Curry
|1 year, 20 days
|- style="background:#D4F2CE;"
|17
|Craig Melvin
|{{age in years and days|2025|01|13}} (ongoing)
|-
|}

Notes:
* Walters was hired as a ''Today'' writer and researcher in 1961, making her first appearance that August with a segment on the Paris fashion show. She was appointed as a "''Today'' Girl" and reporter in October 1964; a ''Today'' panelist in September 1966, and became the program's first female co-anchor upon Frank McGee's death in April 1974.
* Pauley was hired as a ''Today'' panelist in 1976, and was promoted to co-anchor when Bryant Gumbel joined the program in 1982.
* Curry served as the show's Anchor at Large from 2012 to 2015, after her time as a primary host.
*Guthrie first joined ''Today'' as co-host of the third hour, in 2012 she was promoted as co-anchor replacing Ann Curry.

====News anchors====
From the show's inception, the idea of providing the latest news headlines has been critical to the function of the program. In that vein, there has always been at least one person on set whose job it is to prepare and deliver newscasts. In 1952, that person was called the "news editor" or (informally) "news chief". In modern parlance, the term "newsreader" or "news anchor" is preferred. Under the two-hour format, four newscasts were delivered, once every half-hour. Presently, there are only two newscasts, delivered at the top of each of the first two hours. Some anchors, including Jim Fleming, Lew Wood, Floyd Kalber and John Palmer, were seasoned journalists before joining the program. Others, including Ann Curry, have used the position to increase their journalistic acumen, at times leaving the newsdesk behind to venture into the field. News anchors have included the following:
[[File:Today show 1961.JPG|thumb|180px|The program in 1961: [[John Chancellor]], [[Frank Blair (journalist)|Frank Blair]], and [[Edwin Newman]]]]
{{columns-list|colwidth=15em|
* Jim Fleming (1952–1953)
* [[Merrill Mueller]] (1953)
* [[Frank Blair (journalist)|Frank Blair]] (1953–1975)
* [[Lew Wood]] (1975–1976)<ref name=nytimes>{{cite news |title=Lew Wood, TV Newsman, Dies at 84 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/arts/television/lew-wood-tv-newsman-dies-at-84.html|agency=[[Associated Press]] |newspaper=The New York Times |date=August 22, 2013 |access-date=September 13, 2013}}</ref>
* [[Floyd Kalber]] (1976–1979)
* [[Tony Guida]] (1979)
* No separate news anchor (1979–1981, [[Tom Brokaw]] and [[Jane Pauley]] read headlines)
* [[Chris Wallace]] and Pauley (1982)
* [[John Palmer (TV journalist)|John Palmer]] (1982–1989)
* [[Deborah Norville]] (1989)
* [[Faith Daniels]] (1990–1992)
* [[Margaret Larson]] (1992–1994)
* [[Matt Lauer]] (1994–1997)
* [[Ann Curry]] (1997–2011)
* [[Natalie Morales (journalist)|Natalie Morales]] (2011–2016)
* No separate news anchor (2016–2018, co-anchors read headlines)
* [[Craig Melvin]] (2018–2025)<ref>{{cite web |last=Dwire |first=Emily |url=http://www.wistv.com/story/39017881/craig-melvin-named-new-today-show-news-anchor |title=Craig Melvin named new Today Show news anchor |publisher=WIS-TV |date=September 4, 2018}}</ref>
* No separate news anchor (2025-present, [[Savannah Guthrie]] and [[Craig Melvin]] read headlines)
}}

====Weather anchors====
For the program's first 25 years, weather reports were delivered by the host or newsreader. Dave Garroway illustrated the day's forecast by drawing fronts and areas of precipitation on a big chalkboard map of the United States, based on information gathered earlier in the morning from the [[National Weather Service]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] Subsequent hosts John Chancellor and Hugh Downs dropped the chalkboard weather map concept, and instead read a prepared weather summary over a still image of a weather map. When the show converted to all-color broadcasts in 1965, weather maps were prepared and projected on a screen behind Frank Blair, who delivered the forecast immediately after his news summaries.<ref>{{cite book |title=Today: The First Fifteen Years |publisher=National Broadcasting Company |year=1967}}</ref> Following Blair's retirement on March 14, 1975, Lew Wood took over the newsreader and weather reporting duties (using Blair's format). When Floyd Kalber became newsreader in 1976, Wood was relegated to weather, sports, roving reporter assignments, and presenting live on-air commercials until his departure in 1978.

The weather is reported every half-hour during the program's first two hours, though since Al Roker was named weather reporter on January 26, 1996, an interview is conducted by him in place of the national weather forecast at least once during the show, leaving only the local weather inserts by NBC stations.

Prior to Roker, ''Today'' weather reporters were [[Bob Ryan (meteorologist)|Bob Ryan]] (1978–1980) and [[Willard Scott]] (1980–1996). Until Ryan's hiring, no one on the show had practical experience or academic credentials in [[meteorology]]. With NBC's purchase of [[The Weather Channel]] in 2008, personnel from that network frequently participate in ''Today'' forecast segments, at the site of a weather event or from the cable channel's suburban [[Atlanta]] headquarters, or as a fill-in for Roker. This lasted until 2018 when TWC was acquired by [[Entertainment Studios]].

NBC [[owned-and-operated station]]s and [[network affiliate]]s are given a 30-second window to insert a local forecast segment into the program following the national weather report; Roker's outcue for the local break is "That's what's going on around the country, here's what's happening in your neck of the woods," although in recent years, this outcue was used during only starting the second half-hour. During the first half hour, Roker simply uses "your local forecast" which appears after a 30-second commercial. Those not watching on an affiliate which provides local weather segments following the outcue (including international viewers, as well as NBC stations that do not have a news department) see a national summary of temperatures on a weather map.

The semi-retired Scott, who gained fame through his antics that included costumes and props,<ref>{{cite news |title=Star Weatherman: Willard Scott A Huckster For All Seasons |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/04/05/business/star-weatherman-willard-scott-a-huckster-for-all-seasons.html?pagewanted=all&pagewanted=print |first=N.R. |last=Kleinfield |work=The New York Times |date=April 5, 1987}}</ref> still appeared on-air to continue his tradition of wishing "happy birthday" to [[centenarian]]s. Scott's traditional local cue was "Here's what's happening in your world, even as we speak." He retired completely from television on December 15, 2015.

====Regular panelists====
[[File:Today show panel 1973.JPG|thumb|200px|1973 show panel: [[Gene Shalit]], [[Barbara Walters]] and [[Frank McGee (journalist)|Frank McGee]]]]
The job of "panelist" has no set definition. Panelist duties can range from conducting interviews to reporting on a number of topics in-studio and in the field. Regular panelists on the program include the following:
* [[Jack Lescoulie]] (1952–1967)
* [[Edwin Newman]] (1952–1984)
* [[Judith Crist]] (1964–1973)
* [[Barbara Walters]] (1966–1974, officially titled "co-host" in 1974)
* [[Joe Garagiola]] (1967–1973 and 1990–1992)
* [[Gene Shalit]] (1973–2010)

====''Today'' Girls====
From 1952 to 1964, a notable member of the cast was a woman, often an entertainer, the ''Today'' Girl. Usually, she discussed fashion and lifestyle, reported the weather, covered lighter-fare stories or engaged in verbal jousting with Garroway. Estelle Parsons was the first to hold the job, though her title at the time was "Women's Editor". Upon her departure in 1955, the ''Today'' Girl name was adopted. The last to hold the position, Barbara Walters, discussed the job in her autobiography ''[[Audition: A Memoir]]''. She wrote that the ''Today'' Girl era pre-dated [[feminism]], as it was believed that nobody would take a woman seriously reporting "[[infotainment]]" - Walters described the position as a "tea pourer".<ref name="Audition107-114">{{cite book |title=Audition: A Memoir |author-link=Barbara Walters |last=Walters |first=Barbara |publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-307-26646-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_B004FR2X2W/page/107 107]–114 |year=2008 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_B004FR2X2W }}</ref> In 1966, Walters was promoted to co-anchor alongside Hugh Downs, and the ''Today'' Girl position was eliminated. Those who held the position were:
{{columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[Estelle Parsons]] (official title: "Women's Editor", 1952–1955)
* [[Lee Meriwether]] (1955–1956)
* [[Helen O'Connell]] (1956–1958)
* [[Betsy Palmer]] (1958)
* [[Florence Henderson]] (1959–1960)
* [[Joyce Davidson]] (1960)
* Pat Fontaine (1962–1963)
* [[Maureen O'Sullivan]] (1964)
}}

====J. Fred Muggs====
From 1953 to 1957, the program featured [[J. Fred Muggs]], a chimpanzee whose antics entertained viewers, but frustrated the program's staff, especially Dave Garroway. Also occasionally appearing was J. Fred's "girlfriend" Phoebe B. Beebe.