Savannah Guthrie

David Copperfield was supposed to visit the set of NBC's "Today" show last week, but when his flight had to make an emergency landing in Illinois the network went to Plan B - an interview with the illusionist from a hangar in Peoria. Host Matt Lauer was game but technology wasn't. NBC's Skype connection produced bad audio and grainy images of a cheesy illusion that probably only served to make viewers disappear. Just as that segment stumbled to an end, "Today" cameras caught comedian Chelsea Handler awkwardly walking onto the set before her hosts were ready to greet her. It was amateur-hour television and exemplified the struggles at the once-dominant NBC show.

Second chances are rare in the TV news business, but fired TV news anchor A.J. Clemente could still get one after the current round of appearances to explain his expletive-laced on-air goof. Clemente appeared on NBC's "Today" show on Wednesday to talk to Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie about the two dirty words he accidentally uttered to kick off his first-ever appearance as news anchor on North Dakota's NBC affiliate KFYR. The clip, which has become a viral sensation online, shows Clemente and his co-anchor Van Tieu beginning the weekend news, but Clemente begins by saying two words we can't publish here.

For the second time in less than three years, NBC's ratings woes have led to the unceremonious dumping of a prominent on-air host, this time "Today's" Ann Curry. On Thursday, the 55-year-old newswoman tearfully said goodbye to viewers with her co-host Matt Lauer, who will remain on the show, at her side. "For all of you who saw me as a groundbreaker, I'm sorry I couldn't carry the ball over the finish line, but, man, I did try," Curry said in a wavering voice as she marked her last day atop TV's No. 1 morning news show.

If NBC News wants its morning program “Today” to move beyond the problems it has had in the last year, a good first step might be to stop reliving them in the media. Rightfully concerned about the decline in ratings at its biggest news franchise and the beating host Matt Lauer has been taking in the media since Ann Curry was shown the door in favor of Savannah Guthrie, the network has been trying to put its own spin on the story. But the approach is just refocusing attention on everything that went wrong - with little being said about how “Today” is trying to fix itself.

Ann Curry has had many defenders in her recent battle with NBC and “Today,” whose co-host chair she was, of course, forced to vacate. But the TV personality doesn't win any sympathy from one prominent former"Today"figure. Bryant Gumbel, the broadcaster who presided over the morning program for 15 years, said he feels Curry has received overly favorable treatment. Curry's ouster, Gumbel believes, was a simple matter of ratings, and he wonders why so many observers and commentators have rallied so vocally to her defense.

It's a good thing Savannah Guthrie is a trained lawyer because she's about to experience a trial by fire. Guthrie, NBC's chief legal analyst, is the odds-on-favorite to succeed Ann Curry as co-host of the network's morning news show "Today" and take the hot seat next to Matt Lauer. Guthrie already serves as co-host of the third hour of NBC's "Today," so she is no stranger to morning television watchers. But moving from the 9-10 a.m. hour of "Today" to the two-hour signature broadcast is the equivalent of going from the minor leagues to the New York Yankees.

When Savannah Guthrie took the "Today"co-host chair Friday, it marked yet another shift in NBC's venerable morning show lineup. But the journey - and the messy exit of Ann Curry - have left observers wondering what went on behind the scenes at NBC. Network executives' handling of the situation has been puzzling, especially on behalf of a top-rated show that tries so hard to foster emotional ties with viewers. TV host Deborah Norville (who was herself ensnared in a"Today" anchor drama in the early 1990s)

Nearly eight months after CBS' morning show relaunched with a focus on hard news, co-anchor Erica Hill is out, replaced by CBS News chief White House correspondent Norah O'Donnell. O'Donnell will join co-hosts Charlie Rose and Gayle King on "CBS This Morning" in the fall. Hill, who was a co-anchor of the previous incarnation of CBS' morning program, "The Early Show," is in discussions regarding a new role. "This is a very exciting development for our morning program and for all of CBS News," CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager said in a statement.

Taking steps to staunch troubling ratings declines at its lucrative morning news program "Today,"  NBCUniversal has reassigned Jim Bell, executive producer of the show for the last seven years. On Tuesday, Bell was named full-time executive producer of NBC's coverage of upcoming Olympic Games. The veteran sports broadcaster earlier this year had worked as executive producer of NBC's successful London Olympics coverage. The move had been expected. NBCUniversal is expected this week to name a new executive producer of "Today," which until this year had been No. 1 in the morning ratings for 16 years.

Guy Fieri shot back at New York Times critic Pete Wells for a scathing review of his new Times Square restaurant, Guy's American Kitchen & Bar (written entirely in rhetorical questions). Some are even calling it the most brutal restaurant review ever. On today's "Today" show in an interview with Savannah Guthrie , the spiky-haired Food Network star said: "I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, I've read reviews - there's good and there's bad in the restaurant business, but that to me went so overboard, it really seemed like there was another agenda.

At the NBC News Group's upfront presentation Thursday in New York City, “Today” host Matt Lauer wasted no time in addressing the problems plaguing the once-dominant morning program. “I would like to tackle what might be a teeny white elephant in the room. We all love covering the news, we hate being the news,” he said on stage at the New York Public Library's Celeste Bartos Forum, where he was joined by co-host Savannah Guthrie. “I promise to spend all of my time and energy over the next several months trying to keep Savannah out of the headlines.” The joke, of course, is that it's Lauer who's been getting the wrong kind of attention recently, culminating with an ill-timed front-page story in Thursday's New York Times about his plummeting popularity . PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times But if the bad press had him blue, Lauer wasn't letting on. He put on a brave face at the presentation, joking that “we want to go back to the most-watched morning program and the least-talked about morning program.” NBC Universal News chairman Pat Fili-Krushel likewise stressed “Today” in her remarks at the luncheon, pointing out the months of work put into “evolving” the ailing cash cow. “We are really pleased with the direction it's headed,” she said, boasting that with “Today,” MSNBC's “Morning Joe” and CNBC's “Squawk Box,” they “own” morning television.

David Copperfield was supposed to visit the set of NBC's "Today" show last week, but when his flight had to make an emergency landing in Illinois the network went to Plan B - an interview with the illusionist from a hangar in Peoria. Host Matt Lauer was game but technology wasn't. NBC's Skype connection produced bad audio and grainy images of a cheesy illusion that probably only served to make viewers disappear. Just as that segment stumbled to an end, "Today" cameras caught comedian Chelsea Handler awkwardly walking onto the set before her hosts were ready to greet her. It was amateur-hour television and exemplified the struggles at the once-dominant NBC show.

On Monday, a 58-year-old Queens man named Ki-Suk Han was killed when an unknown assailant pushed him off the platform at Manhattan's 49 th Street subway station. It was one of those stories that strikes fear into the heart of every New Yorker, and the controversial image on the cover of Tuesday's New York Post - taken by an onlooker in the last desperate seconds of Han's life - only compounded the horror of the incident. Matt Lauer opted to show the New York Post cover to “Today” viewers Tuesday morning, as well as a second image of Han from inside the paper.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Nov. 25 - Dec. 1 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SERIES The Hour: The drama series set in a 1957 British TV newsroom returns for a new season with Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai, Dominic West and cast newcomer Peter Capaldi (6, 7:15, 9 and 10:15 p.m. BBC America). Return to Lonesome Dove:  Dunnegan (Oliver Reed) tells Newt (Rick Schroder) he considers him a son while Gideon (William Petersen)

Click here to download TV listings for the week Nov. 18 - 24 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SERIES The Twilight Zone: KTLA's annual marathon alternates episodes of the mind-bending anthology series (9, 9:30, 11 and 11:30 a.m.; 1, 1:30, 3, 3:30, 5 and 5:30 p.m.) with episodes of the sci-fi series "The Outer Limits" (10 a.m., noon, 2 and 4 p.m.). Along for the Bride: TLC offers yet another bridal-themed reality series (10 and 10:30 p.m. TLC)

Guy Fieri shot back at New York Times critic Pete Wells for a scathing review of his new Times Square restaurant, Guy's American Kitchen & Bar (written entirely in rhetorical questions). Some are even calling it the most brutal restaurant review ever. On today's "Today" show in an interview with Savannah Guthrie , the spiky-haired Food Network star said: "I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, I've read reviews - there's good and there's bad in the restaurant business, but that to me went so overboard, it really seemed like there was another agenda.

For the first time since her abrupt and emotional departure from "Today"in late June, Ann Curry appeared alongside her former co-host Matt Lauer on Thursday morning in a live broadcast from the London Olympics. In contrast to the spectacle surrounding her farewell, Curry's interaction with her colleague was both tear-free and mercifully brief, but not entirely without tension. Curry was ousted from her job as co-host of "Today" after a yearlong decline at the once-invincible morning franchise, which saw its 16-year ratings winning streak snapped earlier this year byABC's"Good Morning America.

Guy Fieri was in full-on damage control mode Thursday as he hopped on a red-eye flight to be in New York City and on NBC's "Today" in order to defend his recently opened restaurant, Guy's American Bar and Grill. The Times Square eatery, which opened in September, was recently on the receiving end of a brutal review by New York Times food critic Pete Wells, who wrote his entire review as a series of questions. The questions included, "And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?"

Guy Fieri was in full-on damage control mode Thursday as he hopped on a red-eye flight to be in New York City and on NBC's "Today" in order to defend his recently opened restaurant, Guy's American Bar and Grill. The Times Square eatery, which opened in September, was recently on the receiving end of a brutal review by New York Times food critic Pete Wells, who wrote his entire review as a series of questions. The questions included, "And when we hear the words Donkey Sauce, which part of the donkey are we supposed to think about?"

Click here to download TV listings for the week Nov. 18 - 24 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     SUNDAY There's No Doubt you'll be in the Pink when they Usher you into the "The 40th Anniversary American Music Awards. " Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj are just two of the other scheduled performers we couldn't work into that sentence. (KABC, 8 p.m.) Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy were bad … but nothing when compared to "The Dust Bowl" of the 1930s.