'Today' Shakeup: Alexandra Wallace Becoming Executive In Charge, Taking Over From Jim Bell: NYT

Huge Change At 'Today'
This Sept. 25, 2012 photo shows "Today" show co-hosts, from left, Natalie Morales, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Matt Lauer during a broadcast in New York. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)
This Sept. 25, 2012 photo shows "Today" show co-hosts, from left, Natalie Morales, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Matt Lauer during a broadcast in New York. (AP Photo/NBC, Peter Kramer)

After one of the most tumultuous years in its history, "Today" is getting a new boss, the New York Times reported Monday night.

Alexandra Wallace, currently a senior vice president at NBC News, will take over from Jim Bell as the lead executive in charge of "Today," Brian Stelter wrote. Wallace will be the first woman to lead the highly lucrative but troubled morning show.

Wallace, along with what Stelter said was an as-yet-to-be-named second producer who will manage the show from day to day, will inherit a program beset by all kinds of trouble. The show is still reeling from its decision to oust co-host Ann Curry in June. Even before that move, which prompted an unprecedented backlash and damaged the personal popularity of Matt Lauer, the show's central figure, "Today" had seen its venerated 16-year ratings winning streak evaporate.

Since Curry's replacement by Savannah Guthrie, "Good Morning America" has won every single week in the ratings -- save for a brief period during the Summer Olympics -- even as its most popular host, Robin Roberts, has been absent for many weeks due to a bone marrow transplant.

It will be Wallace's job to restore the show's place at the top of the morning ladder, both in terms of ratings and of public goodwill. Currently the executive producer at "Rock Center," she has done just about everything within NBC News — from running "NBC Nightly News" and "Weekend Today" to serving as a chief deputy to the division's president, Steve Capus. Before coming to NBC, she worked as a senior producer at CBS News.

Bell will transition to working full-time on NBC's Olympics coverage, a role he played during the London games in 2012.

(Note: an earlier version of this story said that Wallace will be the executive producer at "Today." Her actual title is "executive in charge.")

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