NBC Trots Out New Team for Troubled ‘Today’

Branding the “Today” show’s declining ratings and revenues as the network’s biggest problem, NBC introduced its new morning news team to executives of its affiliated stations Monday at the opening of their annual three-day convention.

Bryant Gumbel, Deborah Norville and Willard Scott were joined by newly signed “Today” regulars Faith Daniels, the former “CBS This Morning” anchor who was recently hired as news anchor; correspondent Katherine Couric; and 64-year-old sportscaster Joe Garagiola, who hosted the show from 1969 to 1973 and is rejoining it as a third host, beginning next week.

This new lineup of “Today” show talent, NBC executives asserted, will improve the standing of the venerable early-morning news show.

“Clearly, ‘Today’ is our current biggest problem,” NBC network president Pier Mapes told managers from NBC’s 208 affiliated TV stations around the country. “We caused the problem, and we’re going to fix it.”

He was referring to the fact that “Today” had been No. 1 in the morning ratings until NBC management brought Norville onto the show as news reader last August, leading to Pauley’s decision to step down at the end of the year. Since her departure, “Today” has run second to ABC’s “Good Morning America”; NBC has projected that the show may take in $8 million less in revenue this year than the network had earlier anticipated.

The affiliates seemed to have a “wait-and-see” attitude after the introduction of the new cast members. “I’m just not sure that Joe Garagiola is the answer to ‘Today’s’ loss of audience among young women,” said one executive.

“There’s been great concern about ‘Today,’ ” said James Sefert, a South Carolina broadcaster who is chairman of the NBC affiliates board. “NBC is trying to fix the problem, and these shows take time to rebuild.”

Pauley, meanwhile, will have an expanded role on “NBC Nightly News,” the program’s new executive producer, Steve Friedman, told the affiliates. Outlining some of his plans for the evening newscast, which is running third in the ratings, Friedman said that anchor Tom Brokaw will be traveling more while Pauley reads the newscast from New York.

Pauley, who has been the regular substitute anchor for Brokaw since leaving “Today,” will continue in that role. On Monday night, she was scheduled to read the newscast from Washington while Brokaw was in San Francisco with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.

“Tom is our best reporter, and having Jane there will allow us to take a chance on letting him go to places where we think news will be breaking and to stories such as the recent trip to Mt. St. Helens, where we define the story as news,” Friedman said.

The move, said Friedman, a former “Today” show executive producer, does not mean that Pauley is being named co-anchor.

NBC News President Michael Gartner also announced that NBC News Channel, a 24-hour news service to affiliates, would be launched by Jan. 1, 1991.