Inside today

NBC's venerable Today show has been on the air live, two hours a day, five days a week, for more than forty years. For the first half of its life, it was the only morning show of its kind - a potpourri of news, entertainment, and everything else from weather to household tips. To millions of Americans, the program was family, as essential to the weekday routine as the first cup of coffee. But when Good Morning America strode onto the scene, the competition began, things. Got rough, and Today faltered. As the fierce battle for A.M. viewers grew more and more heated, the besieged Today show would be so deeply shaken, it would never be the same. Judy Kessler was Today's talent coordinator during those turbulent times. With Inside Today, she takes you behind the cameras (and behind those on-air smiles) for a revealing, riveting, frequently hilarious, and sometimes shocking look at the war of the ratings. You'll learn what really went on: the. Grueling, often brutal struggle for "hot" guests; the histrionic inner dynamics of a struggling show losing its lifelong hold on first place; the NBC executives' disastrous snafus that transformed a dignified news show into an infotainment vehicle - ultimately resulting in the devastating loss of its most valuable player, Jane Pauley, the plunge to Today's lowest ratings ever, and losses of millions of dollars. Through Inside Today, you'll intimately get to know the cast. Of this galvanizing, real-life soap opera: Jane Pauley, Tom Brokaw, Bryant Gumbel, Deborah Norville, John Palmer, Willard Scott, Gene Shalit, Katie Couric - as well as the top-ranking "suits" who called the shots - through the eyes of someone who fought on the front lines - and lived to tell about it - Inside Today.