NBC News, MSNBC, ABC News and others from across the pond

Matt is in Colorado today but the rest of the team are in Studio 1A.

The open is very nice, much like the previous one but more bright and colourful.

The studio does look a lot better and warmer than the older one and I can see what the designers were going for. Thanks to the turntable, the presenters are facing the 'window on the world' as opposed to sitting infront of it.

The graphics though are strange, they look nice but they're too big! Also, the local station in New York hasn't put up a ticker/clock/weather temp as you can see.

^ So it's local channels who put up the ticker, clock and temps?

Am I the only one who thinks that the text on the straps are misaligned?

I think they could have made the set warmer without having to go back to the 80's. I genuinely hate having the desk rotated in front of 'the living room' area.


Indeed Willie would have done this segment well and there was absolutely no need to hire the charisma free Daly. Terrible decision.


Don't forget Anderson Cooper!

The whole look is a step back (both graphics and set) compared to the previous look.

The set does not look very good on tv. To me it seemed dark, dated and not stylish at all. The worst part is those 2 chairs used for one on one interviews.

I do love the new headlines straps and opening animation. Also it's nice how the camera zoomes in on the window and it looks like the viewers are sneaking into their house.



.... strange how in this upload there's a clock where it's supposed to be and also no split screen with Matt

The second one looks like the West Coast programme update, which is usually done for breaking news whilst the news headlines are updated to relevant to the west coast.

...

Indeed. The "Live PDT" bug gives it away. (Otherwise, it says "Live EDT", because it's delayed in the Pacific timezone).

You're right.

Do they always film a different opening for west coast or just for breaking news like today?

The set - at least in the broader sense of colours and general impression - is certainly a lot warmer than what came before. Making a more complete set (literally joined up/continuous, instead of separat areas not linked by further set) works well with the steadicam opration they introduced this year, although I'm still not sure it suits Today.

One of the curious things I noticed, though, was how the steadicam operation kept catching crew members, who are usually off-screen, just standing around not seeming to be doing anything. There was one guy in particular who watched the camera through one of the fake windows just next to where Al was doing his first forecast with the touchscreen monitor, and it took the director an uncomfortably long time to get the camera operator to reframe the shot so the man wasn't visible.

Carson Daly had a good start from what I saw - though I think their treatment of viewer and social media interaction by putting it into its own dedicated segment in - literally - another room really shows a lack of understanding on NBC's part. At the very least cut straight to Carson, don't make the camera man and/or other anchors walk halfway across the studio to get to it. And did anyone see the really cringeworthy interview they did with a 'Today' 'fan' via Skype? If anyone claims NBC are producing better content for Today, point them to that.

Interesting that Natalie and Al have become so much more integral to the programme over the past few months, including taking over some of the intros, outros and 'coming up' segments previously reserved for the co-hosts. It's much more like GMA.

GMA, for the record, tweaked their set today. Ironically it felt very blue and cold compared to a few months ago...

That second video is from the West Coast feed (and presumably capture from a [West Coast] affiliate who had got round to altering the graphics template for local news and time), re-recorded/reworked to take account of the breaking news that occurred a little before 9am EST about the naval shooting. Though the fact that Savannah, Natalie and Al just repeated the exact same sentiments about the set when they came to re-do the West Coast intro maybe says a lot about their take on chemistry...

EDIT:



Sorry, missed the earlier replies. In answer to your question, they only update for the West Coast if there's significant news developments.

One question I do have, though, is what happens on days like today when the first few minutes would need to be repeated live for the breaking news, but whereby there's no need to rework the entire first half hour... Would the first few minutes of the 9am 'Today's Take' hour be replaced with the reworked opening, and after the added/altered story had concluded the WC return to the replay and Today's Take begin a few minutes late, or is there another way of doing it if the new 7amPst changes would be longer than the preceding commercial (in order to record it during then).

I seem to remember seeing a video taken the day of Macy's 4th July parade, when Curry and Gregory were able to re-record the beginning for West Coast viewers after throwing to Matt and Meredith live on location - can the 1A gallery record proramming while producing separate live programming at the same time?