GMA’s Robin Roberts, Today’s Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and their boss NBC News president Noah Oppenheim), CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King, CNN New Day co-host Alisyn Camerota, MSNBC Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough, and Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy are among the morning TV hosts who recently spoke to Variety about the state of morning television, and their respective programs in 2020.
Morning show ratings continue to decline on a year-over-year basis. However, Oppenheim maintains that his network’s morning show, Today, “is the beating heart, financially, spiritually and editorially” of NBC News.
Some takes from the on-air talent were interesting. Doocy, a morning television veteran who was part of the 1998 launch of Fox & Friends, told Variety: “I always thought that it [the morning] was a tender time of the day. You’re just waking up. You want it nice and easy,” before adding, “But what we have noticed is that when we do segments that are louder, at a hotter temperature — you know what? It kind of works.”
Scarborough, on the other hand, endeavors to take lower the temperature on Morning Joe just a bit.
“Mika and I for the first time had to talk to each other before we went on the show and basically say, ‘Let’s keep it down to a simmer,’” Scarborough said. “We can’t say the world is coming to an end every day. We can’t predict that locusts are going to descend from the heavens every day and tear the flesh off everyone in Washington every day.”
Roberts remarked to Variety that Good Morning America in 2020 “is not your momma’s Good Morning America, nor should it be” (though it’s not totally clear what she means by that).
While CBS This Morning garners fewer viewers than GMA or Today, it seems to garner the most critical acclaim. At least that what’s Gayle King says. “Our competitors will say [to me] I really like what you guys are doing,” adding, “They shall remain nameless, but they are well known.”
Camerota talks about holding lawmakers to account early in the mornings. She feels its what CNN New Day viewers want. “I think people are tuning in to us to see people held to account. People do like it when we hold their feet to the fire.”
She adds: “Sometimes, we have to interrupt people if they are blathering on with their talking points, but even then, our viewers expect us to get in there and stop the nonsense. I don’t wrestle with it.”
Kotb is a very busy woman on weekday mornings, co-hosting 3 hours of NBC’s Today and doing another hour on SiriusXM.
“You no longer just plant your behind on a stool and do your show,” Kotb told Variety. “If you think you’re going to go old school and do it the way you used to — those days are over.”