The "Today Show" Prepares to Become the "All Day Show"

We were recently informed that NBC's popular Today Show was about to add a fourth hour and, if it keeps it up, make take the rest of the day time programming (that is wild speculation on my part). The show consistently (as in years) remains the most popular each and every quarter, and since its parent company (GE see photo) has interests in virtually every type of business, the show is actually a very elaborate infomercial (an idea I discussed in the past), why wouldn't it move to all day? Millions sitting there being sold the latest product or service from the mind of GE, how can they not love such?

But they are getting prepared for the next hour by doing something I have never noticed as a regular Today watcher -- they are replaying stories later in the program from earlier in the show. They are recycling content. They may have done such before, but it flew past me. I guess they figure that, if we are willing to watch hours of infomercial, we might want to see the same things repeatedly on the same program. Those people are brilliant!

In the 1990s Today tried an idea called "Later Today" and it was a complete wash. In fact, I think it only survived a couple of months. The program was an hour or so after Today ended and had completely different personalities. Obviously, if the extended Today is going to work, it is going to have to be seamless. It is already the longest daily morning show of the networks, the bet is that it can be longer still and successful. This is something we will have to wait until September to see.