Saturday, June 11, 2011

Meredith Vieira Leaves Today: A Recap

Oh hi. My staff gave me the horrible news that our friend Meredith Vieira has left Today. After alarming the flophouse with my sobs of agony, I decided to watch the episode show  that Today created to send Meredith off. I'm so sad....

 After a reflective hour of clips and whatnot, they primed the pump by having Carole King sing "You've Got a Friend." Something from Tapestry really? That's made people feel nostalgic about two weeks after its release.I'm glad they didn't get James Taylor on there, that would have really made me shit a brick. Anyway, after a few drinks, Matt Lauer led Meredith to the piana and he pretended to play and led her to the street by a bunch of NBC employees.The song they used? America's new national anthem, "Don't Stop Believin'" from Journey (rolls eyes.) Ann Curry (who should have gotten the gig six years ago) seemed to have a particularly good time sending Mer off. From Miss Ann, we got Natalie Morales. Did you know Natalie was up for Vieira's vacated spot? I bet she's not going to stay on Today too long if a better offer presents itself.

The level of NBC staff on hand was staggering. Did you see Manimal? I did. Hoda and Kathie Lee  (from Regis and Kathie Lee) was there too. I was hoping they'd all fall down. Sadly Tom Brokaw couldn't join the proceedings. He was in a makeshift study preparing for an interview with Ronald Reagan (shh, don't tell him.) Near the end, my favorite gang, Jenna Wolfe, Amy Robach and Lester Holt even stopped by to lip-synch. And about Lester Holt, out there with no rhythm at all. Shameful! Abe Vigoda was there too. Goody....



Part 2: After the party was over, Katie, Matt, Al and Ann all told Meredith how great she was. They were crying and stuff yet I was unmoved. Me? I can cry on 35 year old commercials but for this? I did not care. I think it's because Meredith has done better work elsewhere and there's probably better work ahead for her.




From The Archives- Here's a pic of most of the NBC Today gang at my blog's 5th anniversary party.

3 comments:

hapi said...

Hi Jason Elias, Nice blog! How to add the Glitter Effect Mouse Pointer to your Blog

Malcolm said...

Although I like Meredith, I agree that Ann Curry should have gotten the job when Katie flew the coop. I thought Ann was going to get passed over again so I was pleasantly surprised when she got promoted.

Unknown said...

I thought they were going to pass over Ann too. I like her a lot, lovely woman. I thought for sure Natalie Morales was going to get the job, glad she didn't.