Vieira To ‘Today:’ Press Conf. Live-blogging

2:15pm: Matt and Meredith have the same birthday: Dec. 30.
2:14pm: How long will Vieira, 52, stay at Today? She didn’t really answer: “I assume from everything that people have told me that I’m going to come in here and love it and I’ll want to stick around a long time.”
1:58pm: What about the “internal candidates?” Zucker said: “The fact is that nobody’s been passed over or anything like that. When you have the opportunity to add a hall of famer to your team, you take that opportunity.”
1:57pm: Capus says Ann, Natalie, and Campbell will be asked to “step up” and help out over the summer before Meredith starts at Today.
1:55pm: Lauer: “I think you’re going to see slow change, not dramatic change.”
1:54pm: “I’m going to have to be reigned in a little.”
1:53pm: Meredith hasn’t spoken to Katie yet.
1:51pm: “I can’t say anything about The View. [I had a great time.] I really do believe that it’s time to grow and try something different,” Vieira said.
1:48pm: Vieira met Zucker in October. Matt and Meredith got together at the beginning of December.
1:48pm: Capus reiterated the “position of strength” idea and called it a “fantastic ensemble.”
1:47pm: Capus: “This is a great fit. When I spoke to Meredith the first time, she acknowledged what many of you had written about, which is that she had offers to do other things in the past, but she had never had the Today show.”
1:46pm: The blind date happened at Matt’s apartment. “We had dinner, and I noticed that by the end of the evening we were giving each other a lot of grief.”
1:45pm: Lauer: “Boy, I’ve had a hell of a couple of days.”
1:44pm: As the weeks progressed, I realized that it would be the right thing to do.” She described meeting Matt Lauer as “going out on a blind date, and you really like the guy.”
1:43pm: Meredith: “I thought about this long and hard, and I am so, so honored to join this family. I mean this from the bottom of my heart.”
1:41pm: Jeff Zucker mentioned that Jim Bell got his job at Today “one year ago today.”
1:40pm: The event started 10 minutes late.