NBC Hopes to Extend Lead From Early to ‘Later’ : Television. The hourlong show targeting women and focusing on consumer news, food, fashion and advice begins Tuesday.

Morning television is already about to undergo big changes with new studios and anchors for CBS’ “The Early Show” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Not to be left out, NBC is attempting to capitalize on its own program, “Today,” which leads the pack.

So Tuesday, “Today” gets a brand extension with the launch of “Later Today.” The hourlong show will air, not surprisingly, at 9 a.m., in the hopes of keeping the attention of the women who, at that point in the day, make up the core of the audience for the traditional morning show.

Hosted by Jodi Applegate, most recently co-anchor of the weekend editions of “Today,” the new program will be a mix of consumer news, medical and parenting advice, fashion shows, cooking segments, celebrity interviews and some more traditional news, mostly on days when a big story is breaking. Airing live in the East and Central time zones, in front of a small studio audience, it will be updated live for the West Coast, if necessary.

The show will also occasionally work the crowds that gather in front of the “Today” street-level studio at Rockefeller Center, but the program itself will originate from a more traditional third-floor studio inside NBC’s headquarters.

Applegate’s co-hosts are Asha Blake, most recently the anchor of KNBC’s late-afternoon newscast, and Florence Henderson, a “Today Girl” on the NBC program back in 1959-60, who is better known as the actress who played mom to the “The Brady Bunch.”

* “Later Today” airs at 9 a.m. weekdays on KNBC.