| Weekend Today | |
|---|---|
| [File:NBC Today titles.png | |
| Also known as | Weekend Today, Saturday Today, Sunday Today |
| Format | news program, live action |
| Presented by | Lester Holt (2003–present) Amy Robach (2007–present) Saturdays: Jenna Wolfe (2007–present) Sundays: Bill Karins (2009–present) Sundays: Janice Huff (1995–present) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Production | |
| Running time | 120 minutes (2 hours) (Sat) 60 minutes (1 hour) (Sun) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | NBC |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV) |
| Original run |
September 19, 1987- present September 20, 1987 – present |
Weekend Today is the unofficial title of the weekend editions of Today, an American morning news and talk show which airs daily on NBC.
Contents |
The Saturday edition of Today (Saturday Today) premiered on September 19, 1987 hosted by Bob Jamieson and Connie Chung. The program was broadcast at 7:00 a.m. ET and was 120 minutes long. The Sunday edition of Today (Sunday Today) premiered on September 20, 1987 hosted by Boyd Matson and Maria Shriver. The program was broadcast at 8:00 a.m. ET and was 90 minutes long with Meet the Press following at 9:30 a.m. Five years later, on August 1, 1992, Weekend Today made its debut. The program is broadcast from Studio 1A (also houses Dateline) in Rockefeller Plaza in New York, although Sunday Today originated from Washington for a few years. The Sunday edition of Today scaled back to one hour while Meet the Press expanded to an hour.
The weekend editions were initially titled Saturday Today or Sunday Today, as applicable, in order to distinguish them from the weekday program. Since the late 1990s, all editions of the program have officially simply carried the title Today, although Weekend Today is still used for promotional purposes, in order to distinguish it from its weekday counterpart.
The weekend broadcasts continue the Today tradition of covering breaking news, interviewing newsmakers, reporting on a variety of popular-culture and human-interest stories, covering health and finance issues and presenting the latest weather reports. Just like the Weekday edition, the show offers visitors to New York City a chance to observe firsthand the workings of a live television broadcast with its windowed studio on Rockefeller Plaza. Interaction with the crowd outside the studio is a major part of the program.
Unlike the weekday edition of Today where news updates are reported at the top of the hour, news updates are given every half hour.
Weekend editions are tailored to the priorities and interests of weekend viewers—offering special series such as Saturday Today on the Plaza, featuring live performances by the biggest names in music and Broadway outside the studio throughout the summer.
Pat Burkey is the Executive Producer of Weekend Today.[1]
The show is live from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. ET on Saturdays, although some affiliates chose to tape-delay the program. Some stations in the western half of the country choose to air it at 5:00 local time.
On Sunday, the show is aired live from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. ET. Most NBC affiliates choose to air two editions of their local morning newscast around the Sunday edition of Weekend Today, with the first hour of the local newscast airing before and the second hour airing after the program.
Some affiliates choose not to air part - or the entire show at all.
There is no permanent news anchor for the Weekend Edition. Personalities from various NBC News divisions fill in on those days.
Saturday Today anchors included:
Sunday Today anchors included:
Weekend Today anchors included:
Scherzo for Today was used as the program's closing theme until 1990, and the Mission bumpers were used until 1993. (One of them could be heard as a station break lead-in on NBC's Meet The Press until 2004.) The Today Show opening fanfare has opened the program ever since, with two exceptions. In the summer of 1994, to mark the debut of Studio 1A, the Williams-penned fanfare was replaced by another opening theme, but the Williams theme returned shortly thereafter. In 2004, the show's producers tried out yet another theme, which drew once again on the NBC chimes as its signature, but the Williams theme returned after only a few weeks. It is by far the most enduring theme in the program's history, having now been in use for over two decades.
The Scherzo for Today was iconically accompanied by Fred Facey announcing "From NBC News, this is Today..." until his death in April 2003, except for special editions requiring special introductions. Facey's work is now only heard on the MSNBC program Headliners and Legends.
Currently, a lighter theme employing the NBC chimes is used to open the show's 7:30 and 8:30 half-hour segments, and also used as a closing theme.
Following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster on February 1, 2003, Weekend Today aired a special edition on Sunday, February 2, with the expanded introduction
| “ | Disaster: The Space Shuttle Columbia. From NBC News, this is a special edition of Today with Soledad O'Brien at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida and David Bloom at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. | ” |
The next day was also a special edition with Matt Lauer at Studio 1A in New York and Katie Couric at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.
On April 6, 2003, the death of Bloom in Iraq dominated that day's edition. Soledad O'Brien, Matt Lauer, and Katie Couric hosted a special edition of Today to remember Bloom.
When Pope John Paul II died on Saturday, April 2, 2005, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer anchored the weekend editions of The Today Show. Lauer anchored from the Vatican with Campbell Brown offering reports by his side. On the day of the Pope's death, Couric anchored a special report on a Vatican statement updating the Pope's dire condition and Lauer reported for the special report anchored by Brian Williams when the Pope was officially dead. He returned to New York as Couric traveled to Vatican City to co-anchor coverage of the Pope's funeral with Williams.
On April 19, 2008, special edition of Weekend Today featured Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States, billed as "The Pope Visits the USA." Lester Holt and Jenna Wolfe moved outside to Rockefeller Center to cover the first papal mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. However, they moved back to Studio 1A at the 7:30 half hour.
On May 10, 2008, Weekend Today featured a special split edition coveing the wedding of Jenna Bush at the President's ranch outside Crawford, Texas. Co-anchor Lester Holt remained at Studio 1A, while Amy Robach covered the wedding from Texas.
On June 14, 2008, a special edition occurred because of the death of Tim Russert, NBC's Washington Bureau Chief and Moderator of Meet the Press. Matt Lauer and Tom Brokaw anchored this edition of "Today." Andrea Mitchell, David Gregory, Pete Williams, Lisa Myers, Bob Schieffer, host of Face the Nation, George Stephanopoulos, host of This Week, and Vice President Dick Cheney, among others, appeared on "Today." The next day, there was another special edition, hosted by Gregory and Mitchell on the death of Russert.
On April 30, 2011, Natalie Morales and Al Roker anchored a special edition of “Weekend Today” from London during the wedding of Prince William and the former Kate Middleton.
The program is watched by more viewers than ABC's Good Morning America Weekend Edition and CBS' Saturday Early Show[2], but less than those of CBS News Sunday Morning.[3]
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