page_title: Today (American TV program)
section_title: News anchors
hierarchical_section_title: Today (American TV program) / On-air staff / Former staff / News anchors
caption_attribution_description: Publicity photo of John Chancellor, Frank Blair and Edwin Newman from the television program Today (The Today Show). The show was preparing to celebrate its 10th anniversary on the air at the time the photo was taken.
context_page_description: Today, also called The Today Show, is an American news and talk morning television show that airs on NBC. The program debuted on January 14, 1952. It was the first of its genre on American television and in the world, and after 68 years of broadcasting it is the fifth-longest-running American television series.
  Originally a weekday two-hour program from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m., it expanded to Sundays in 1987 and Saturdays in 1992. The weekday broadcast expanded to three hours in 2000, and to four hours in 2007. Today's dominance was virtually unchallenged by the other networks until the late 1980s, when it was overtaken by ABC's Good Morning America.
  Today retook the Nielsen ratings lead the week of December 11, 1995, and held onto that position for 852 consecutive weeks until the week of April 9, 2012, when Good Morning America topped it again. Today maintained its No. 2 status behind GMA from the summer of 2012 until it regained the lead in the aftermath of anchor Matt Lauer's departure in November 2017. In 2002, Today was ranked No. 17 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.
context_section_description: From the show's inception, the idea of providing the latest news headlines has been critical to the function of the program. In that vein, there has always been at least one person on set whose job it is to prepare and deliver newscasts. In 1952, that person was called the "news editor" or (informally) "news chief". In modern parlance, the term "newsreader" or "news anchor" is preferred. Under the two-hour format, four newscasts were delivered, once every half-hour. Presently, there are only two newscasts, delivered at the top of each of the first two hours. Some anchors, including Jim Fleming, Lew Wood, Floyd Kalber and John Palmer, were seasoned journalists before joining the program. Others, including Ann Curry, have used the position to increase their journalistic acumen, at times leaving the newsdesk behind to venture into the field. News anchors have included the following:
  Jim Fleming (1952–53)
  Merrill Mueller (1953)
  Frank Blair (1953–1975)
  Lew Wood (1975–1976)
  Floyd Kalber (1976–1979)
  Tony Guida (1979)
  No separate news anchor (1979–1981; Tom Brokaw and Jane Pauley read headlines)
  Chris Wallace and Pauley (1982)
  John Palmer (1982–1989)
  Deborah Norville (1989)
  Faith Daniels (1990–1992)
  Margaret Larson (1992–1994)
  Matt Lauer (1994–1997)
  Ann Curry (1997–2011)
  Natalie Morales (2011–2016)
  No separate news anchor (2016–2018; co-anchors read headlines)
  Craig Melvin (2018–present)
caption: The program in 1961: John Chancellor, Frank Blair and Edwin Newman
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