This afternoon NBC Universal held a luncheon touting its morning shows, “Today,” “Morning Joe,” and “Squawk Box” to advertisers, media buyers and the press.
Every morning host was there, participating in a lighthearted panel discussion moderated by “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams. “Morning Joe”‘s Mika Brzezinski, Joe Scarborough and Willie Geist shared the stage with “Today”‘s Ann Curry, Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Al Roker, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb as well as “Squawk Box”‘s Joe Kernen, Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla.
The hosts revealed when they got up in the morning, with most waking up between 3-4:30 AM. The outliers were Vieira, who says she gets up at 2:30 AM and Scarborough, who said he usually wakes up around 5:30 AM, an impressive feat given that his show starts at 6.
A number of NBC Universal executives were in attendance as well, including NBC News chief Steve Capus, MSNBC president Phil Griffin, CNBC president Mark Hoffman and NBC Universal advertising sales president Mike Pilot.
NBC universal CEO Jeff Zucker, who probably has a lot more than mornings on his mind these days, hosted the event. He told TVNewser he still expects the Comcast acquisition to be completed by the end of the year, noting that it was now in the hands of the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission.
He also said that he does not expect Comcast to make any major changes to NBC News once the acquisition gets federal approval.