Jenna Wolfe, Amy Robach, NBC’s ‘Weekend Today Show’

Another Sunday Filled With Jokes!
As I started posts this morning, I wondered whether the “Weekend Today’ web page had been updated. Check it out. You’ll find a solo focus on Lester Holt with no mention of Amy Robach or Jenna Wolfe. Could it be that even the folks at NBC are not set on this split weekend schedule with Robach co-anchoring Saturday and Wolfe co-anchoring Sunday? By the way, here's a sample of one of the comments from a previous post. "I still think it's absurd that NBC has not named a replacement for Campbell Brown and its been at least 6 months since she left. I think that says a lot about the talent level at NBC News right now. They used to be good at bringing up talent from MSNBC but after Lester Holt, Natalie Morales, and John Seigenthaler, that seems to have abruptly stopped."

I happened to skip Saturday’s show but watched it on DVR just before Sunday’s show. Robach and Holt held their usual positions (Holt was in South Carolina) and Tamron Hall filled in for Wolfe at the news desk. I wondered if there would be a relief, or Robach, filling in as co-host Sunday morning. That didn’t happen.

Wolfe opened the show with Holt (who was LIVE again in South Carolina). Of course, true to her personality, Wolfe’s first on-camera lines were a joke, “Lester, can you hear that?” He looked confused. It was quiet, No noise. She proceeded, “It’s quiet here without you. Get your work done and come on home.” After all, that’s what viewers were thinking right? Lester, “forget that presidential stuff, and get back to New York.” Hardly.

After some political news, there were more signs of Wolfe’s constant inward-focus. How does the content affect here? She leads the cold weather coverage, tossing to a reporter out in New York in 20 degree weather. She tried to connect on the cold weather by joking how warm it is in studio before tossing out to the reporter in that frigid 20 degree weather (sarcasm intended). Their back and forth about the horribly cold 20-degree weather in New York, basically excluded about a fourth of the country that is seeing single digits and below zero weather today. Poor things, I can’t imagine the horror (sarcasm intended again).

Something interested happened about 47 minutes into the Sunday edition. Keep in mind it’s an hour show and Holt anchored huge chunks of political coverage from South Carolina. News-reader-de-jour Hall hosted a segment called “Dress for Less”. Where was Wolfe? There was not a ton of content for her to focus on in this split edition. After the Hall segment finished, Wolfe did a short package and Q&A about infomercials. Hall is such an irregular fill-in on ‘Today’ that it was just odd to have her host a segment like this. By the way, I think she’s pretty good and easy to watch for many of the reasons that Wolfe is not. As she closed the segment, she voiced a silly British accent, trying to play off the interviewee’s comment that British voices really work on infomercials. At about that time, someone walked into the room where I was watching the show and without prompting said in disbelief, “Who was that?”

A friend who works in TV news mentioned recently a story that Wolfe did for ‘Today’ about the return of “American Gladiators’. She chuckled that Matt Lauer said, ‘This is going to be a classic.’ Take a look at that clip from YouTube.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think that report was a ‘classic’ in a good way. But shows like ‘Today’ think they need these ‘stunt reporters.” As I have posted before, that kind of position is perhaps a more natural fit for Wolfe.

CHECK OUT PAST POSTS ABOUT WOLFE, ROBACH, 'TODAY'
Wolfe 'Sexes it up' Sunday
Wolfe-Robach, The Saga Continues
Endless Fascination With Wolfe
Jenna Wolfe & Weekend 'Today': Is OK Enough?
Robach Back, Wolfe Reading News
What In The World Has Happened To Weekend 'Today'
See A Sample Of Other User Comments About Wolfe, Robach

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