‘Today’ Will Not Renew Ulene Pact

Dr. Art Ulene, the medical correspondent for the “Today” show, has been notified that his contract on the NBC early-morning series is not being renewed. Ulene, 54, a pioneer in health reporting on television, has been with the program for 15 years.

“I have been advised by (‘Today’ executive producer) Tom Capra that NBC is not going to renew my contract,” Ulene said in an interview Tuesday. “The reason given was that they want a physician who will work full time with the show in New York.”

Ulene lives in Bel-Air and tapes many of his reports for the program at the NBC studios in Burbank. He travels to New York to do others on the “Today” set. He also reports for KABC-TV Channel 7 in Los Angeles.

His contract with NBC is due to expire in mid-May, but he said that he had agreed to stay with “Today” until a replacement can be found. “They’ve asked me to work on a month-to-month basis until they can find someone, and I’ve agreed to do that,” he said.

Capra could not be reached for comment. But an NBC spokeswoman confirmed that Ulene’s contract was not being renewed and said that the show “is looking for a medical expert who can be based in New York.” She would not speculate on possible candidates to replace him.

Ulene said that he had not been asked to move to New York. “I wasn’t asked, but I’m sure they knew what the answer would be. When I was first offered this job 15 years ago, I was asked to move to New York. I refused the offer, but then they came back and said I wouldn’t have to move.”

When Capra took over as the executive producer on “Today” early last year, he had expressed enthusiasm for Ulene’s work in an interview with The Times. Recently the show has been showing ratings gains against ABC’s “Good Morning, America.” “Tom’s a new producer, and maybe he has his own ideas about the show,” Ulene said, “but I have no reason to take this decision at anything other than face value. I’m glad to have had the opportunity to do this work--and I’m waiting for one of the other network morning shows to call me.”