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‘Today’ show hosts through the years With Savannah Guthrie replacing Ann Curry, here’s a look back at the many host shuffles at the NBC morning show. — By Lisa de Moraes
Savannah Guthrie
Savannah Guthrie's first day hosting "Today" with Matt Lauer was July 9. Guthrie has been with NBC News since September 2007 and was "Today's" 9 a.m. anchor since June 2011.
Peter Kramer
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NBC
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Ann Curry
Ann Curry came to the program in 1997 as a newsreader and distinguished herself with her reporting of major stories. Curry announced she was departing as host of "Today" on June 28. She remains "Today" anchor at large.
Peter Kramer
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NBC
Meredith Vieira
According to some TV and media critics, Meredith Vieira was the practically perfect morning show host: good journalist, likeable, great back story as a mother trying to balance family with career, didn't take herself too seriously, great sense of humor. She joined the show in 2006 and remained until 2011.
Robert Caplin
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Bloomberg News
Matt Lauer
Matt Lauer, pictured with co-host Meredith Vieira, joined the show in 1997, replacing Bryant Gumbel. “He got along really well with Katie, which Bryant did not at the end,” said Stephen Battaglio, the author of “From Yesterday to TODAY.”
Richard Drew
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AP
Katie Couric
Katie Couric appeared on the Sunday edition of “Today” and filled in for Deborah Norville when she went on maternity leave. Norville never returned. Couric left the show in 2006 to anchor the CBS Evening News.
James M. Thresher
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The Washington Post
Deborah Norville
Deborah Norville (right, interviewing Dustin Hoffman and Allison Atlas) was hired as co-host when “Today's” ratings, which had a great run through most of the ’80s, began to slip among younger female viewers. Originally hired as the show’s newsreader, speculation grew that she was being groomed to replace Jane Pauley, who saw the writing on the wall and exited. “The perception was that the younger, blonder Norville had broken up America's Morning TV Family,” said Stephen Battaglio, the author of “From Yesterday to TODAY.” The show suffered in the ratings, and ABC's “Good Morning America” took over the lead.
Marty Lederhandler
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AP
Bryant Gumbel
Bryant Gumbel, with Jane Pauley, started doing segments for “Today” while with NBC Sports and replaced Tom Brokaw. Gumbel left in 1997 after being courted by CBS to anchor a prime-time news magazine, “Public Eye With Bryant Gumbel.”
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NBC
Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw, right, was asked to host “Today” in 1974 but turned it down because, among other things, hosts had to do live commercials. Jim Hartz got the gig, but when Barbara Walters left, NBC News wanted to remake the program and went back to Brokaw, its White House correspondent during Watergate, and promised he would not have to do live commercials — ending a long tradition on the show.
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nbcmv.com
Jim Hartz
Jim Hartz (at left, with Barbara Walters), a veteran of NBC news, was given the host job when Frank McGee died and Tom Brokaw turned down the job. Hartz left in 1976, when NBC went after Brokaw again and he accepted.
Dave Pickoff
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AP
Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters was hired as a “Today” writer in the early 1960s — the last person hired by Dave Garroway before his exit — then was promoted to on-air “tea pourer” (her description.) In that capacity, she did "softer" stories while, on her own, pursuing hard-news interviews. She landed the title of co-host in 1974, when Frank McGee died, becoming the show’s first female co-host and the first female co-equal on a network TV news program. She left in 1976 to co-anchor ABC’s evening newscast.
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AP
Frank McGee
Frank McGee (at left, with Hugh Downs, who replaced Downs in 1971) is maybe most famous, “Today” show-wise, for having insisted that Barbara Walters could ask the fourth question during joint interviews, but not the first, second or third. He stayed on the show until about a week before his death of bone cancer in 1974.
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AP
Hugh Downs
Hugh Downs, center, who had been Jack Paar's announcer on NBC's “Tonight Show” in the late 1950s and early ’60s, was hosting the game show “Concentration” when he became “Today” host in 1962. He stayed until 1971.
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Reuters
John Chancellor
John Chancellor, third from left, replaced Dave Garroway in 1961 but was gone in ’62. “John Chancellor was a great TV newsman who was not suited for the ‘Today’ show and he knew it,” author Stephen Battaglio said. “He once fell asleep on the air; he didn’t like doing the silly stuff.”
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NBC
Dave Garroway
Dave Garroway, the show's first host, had the gig from “Today's” premiere in January 1952 until 1961. “He was someone who could look into the camera and make you feel like he was talking to you at home,” said Stephen Battaglio, author of “From Yesterday to TODAY,” the history of the “Today” show. Garroway had no co-host, but he did have a show mascot — the chimpanzee J. Fred Muggs, whose “Today” run only lasted until 1957.
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AP
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