海角大神

If you thought morning news shows were just about weather and cooking, think again. As Katie Couric鈥檚 high-profile stint on "Good Morning America" this week 鈥� and her faceoff with Sarah Palin on NBC Tuesday 鈥� shows, that a.m. TV real estate has become broadcasting鈥檚 high-stakes battleground.

Those morning shows, which many people experience only as background noise to their morning rush, fill many important roles for the networks as they face declining viewership聽amid increased competition from other news sources.

They help drive brand loyalty,聽provide a rich landscape for advertising and cross-brand promotion, and above all else, produce a steady cash flow. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the 鈥淭oday" show brough in more than $500 million in ad revenue in 2010.聽

鈥淢orning shows are like the Rock of Gibraltar,鈥� says Paul Levinson, author of 鈥淣ew New Media.鈥� 鈥淲hen you get up in the morning and are getting ready to leave, you don鈥檛 have time to go online or listen too closely, so they have adapted to that role of being background noise with just enough information to keep聽聽 people listening.鈥澛�

People鈥檚 eyes and ears are fresh and ready to take in information, he says, but in a passive mode. 鈥淭his is why morning television has been so impervious to competition from the web,鈥� he adds.

鈥淭he biggest mistake morning TV could make is simply to put the wrong person in that host seat,鈥� he adds.

Finding that person is a kind of network art that has proved maddeningly elusive, says聽Brian Balthazar, editor of聽聽and a former 鈥淭oday" show supervising producer.聽

鈥淓ver since Katie Couric took the nation by storm [in 1991], other networks have been trying to capture the same kind of magic with varying degrees of success,鈥� he says. But as the sparks between NBC and ABC this week show, they will continue to try.

NBC has ruled the morning ratings war for some 16 years. ABC had hoped to break that reign this week, but the early ratings show that on Monday at least,聽 NBC still held the lead.聽

鈥淭he morning shows have become an integral part of a network鈥檚 look, feel, and brand,鈥� says Mr. Balthazar.

Pointing to the four hours that make up NBC鈥檚 鈥淭oday" show morning block, he says, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a huge amount of programming and it really influences the way people perceive and identify the network."

But this week鈥檚 hosting battle is a bad sign, says Mark Tatge, a journalism professor at DePauw University in Indiana. 鈥淭his represents a sharp turn in a shrill direction,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t is a sad commentary that this is produced by the network鈥檚 news division.鈥�

While he acknowledges that the format has demonstrated a unique staying power during the past 60 years of broadcast TV, he says 鈥渁ll of television is in a major transition,鈥澛爓ith everything moving online. The聽broadcast model of local affiliates as it has existed for decades 鈥渋s falling apart.鈥�

Whether the morning shows will continue to exist in the forms as we know them today, he adds, 鈥渋s a real question with the breakup of the network model.鈥�

But there has been much hand-wringing over the future of broadcast television for many years, says Robert Thompson, founder of the Bleier Center of Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University in New York.

鈥淲hen people talk about the end of broadcast television, I hope they are not talking about the morning programs,鈥� he says.聽聽

They are cheap to produce, relative to scripted shows, and have adapted to what people want in those聽early hours of the day. 鈥淭hese shows are all about programming that needs to be watched live,鈥� he says, much like the Super Bowl, whose ratings continue to climb.

鈥淣obody replays the weather over the weekend,鈥� he says. 鈥淩egular television is still the best way to see most live programming.鈥澛�