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NBC OKs fourth hour for 'TODAY'

Show celebrated its 55th year last week

By MICHAEL LEARMONTH

NBC Universal has given a greenlight to a fourth hour of "Today," a bid to extend one of its most profitable franchises into a time period now dominated by syndicated cooking and talkshows.

The fourth hour (Daily Variety, Aug. 7) is the latest experiment into how far the network can push the "Today" franchise, which celebrated its 55th year last week and has spent 11 years atop the ratings.

NBC notified its affiliated stations late Friday that the network intended to make a fourth hour available to them starting in the fall and plans to unveil it Wednesday at the Television Critics Assn. press tour in Pasadena.

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I don't know about you, but I'm sticking to "Good Morning America" on ABC. A 4 hour morning TV show is pushing it to the limits, don't ya think?

I never watch beyond the first hour anyway unless there's Breaking News. The 3rd hour(and 4th hour when it starts) go after a totally different audience. They don't watch it for news.

will it now start at 6 or end at 11? ill still watch it when possible.

fact789 wrote:will it now start at 6 or end at 11? ill still watch it when possible.

It won't start at 6(at least not on the East Coast). The 4th hour would end at 11(although that might not be the case with the every affiliate). They may not carry it...

and another thing, Matt and Meredith won't be around for the 4th hour. Meredith leaves after the 2nd hour now and Matt sometimes doesn't stick around.

I do like the fact that it is available because that allows me to see local news/weather updates longer into the morning at :25 and :55.