ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today show are rivals when it comes to ratings and landing exclusive interviews. Now the people who book music acts for both shows have something else in common. GMA entertainment producer Monica Escobedo and Today show music booking producer Brittany Schreiber are both on Billboard’s first-ever list of TV’s top music power players.
The morning show producers join industry big shots such as Viacom evp Erik Flannigan, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt and BET president Stephen Hill. Billboard says the list includes executives, showrunners, bookers and supervisors who can “make — or break — an artist’s song and career.”
GMA’s Escobedo:
After a summer concert series that featured Dierks Bentley,Jason Derulo, Nicki Minaj and a surprise show by One Direction, Escobedo could rest on the Central Park performances that drew 6,000 fans per week and helped earn the top-rated network morning show 4.7 million weekly viewers. But the Los Angeles native already booked Steven Tyler and Kelsea Ballerini to announce nominees for the Country Music Association Awards and launched a fall concert series while collaborating with Jimmy Kimmel Live! and other ABC shows to share and cross-promote GMA‘s musical guests.
Today’s Schreiber:
NBC’s morning show has had a ratings upswing, thanks in part to its summer concert series, which Schreiber took over when Julie Gurovitsch departed for The Tonight Show in April. The five-year Today veteran booked Andy Grammer, Fifth Harmonyand Darius Rucker, and in late August, the show delivered its best ratings in 10 weeks; and with more than 1.6 million viewers ages 25-54, it trailed GMA by just 37,000 in that key demo. Though Schreiber stresses that the audience comes first, she says personal tastes often play into her selections. “I love a great song,” she says. “If you can sing along and dance to it, it will be great for [Rockefeller Plaza], because that’s what the fans will be doing.”