A Brief History
On January 14, 1952, the Today Show, also simply called Today, made its debut on NBC television, the first daily morning television talk show.
Digging Deeper
Originally a 2-hour long show, the program has evolved into a 4 hour composite morning television powerhouse, basically unchallenged in its genre until the introduction of Good Morning America on ABC and the ascendance of that program in the 1980s.
These 2 morning shows have exchanged the coveted #1 rating a few times over the years, and in keeping with the times, Today now also offers a 24 hours streaming show called Today All Day on both the NBC website and on Peacock streaming service.
Today has had over 18,000 episodes and has run for 70+ seasons. Do you watch Today?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Londino, Cathleen. The Today Show: Transforming Morning Television. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016.
Stelter, Brian. Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV. Hachette Audio, 2013.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of Dave Garroway on the Today show set in 1952, is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1928 and 1963, and although there may or may not have been a copyright notice, the copyright was not renewed. For further explanation, see Commons:Hirtle chart and the copyright renewal logs.
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