Once a place where viewers could turn for a gentler take on the daily news, morning shows saw things turn rough in 2017. By year’s end, with the Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose sexual harassment scandals rocking top networks NBC and CBS, it became easy for viewers to wonder who had really been joining them in their living rooms at the start of the day.
Here’s all the drama that went down in the wee hours of TV this year.
January
In the first days of January, it was announced that after 12 years at Fox News, Megyn Kelly would be jumping over to NBC. Before the news was made official, the move was so secret that only a few top-tier execs knew it was happening — even former NBC golden boy Matt Lauer was kept in the dark and “blew a gasket” when he found out, sources told us at the time.
On top of the NBC talent shakeup, Jenna Bush Hager accidentally flubbed the names of Best Picture nominees “Fences” and “Hidden Figures.” While interviewing Pharrell Williams about his Golden Globe-nominated song for “Hidden Figures,” she mistakenly called the film “Hidden Fences.” The next morning, she teared up while apologizing for her mistake, after much of social media insinuated that Hollywood couldn’t keep the titles straight because both feature African-American casts. The internet has since forgiven her, especially since Michael Keaton made the same error later in the night.
February
The announcement of Megyn Kelly’s arrival was soon met with sad news: After 10 years, Tamron Hall decided to leave NBC News and MSNBC. On Feb. 1, an email went out to staffers that read, “Tamron is an exceptional journalist, we valued and enjoyed her work at ‘Today’ and MSNBC and hoped that she would decide to stay. We are disappointed that she has chosen to leave, but we wish her all the best.” But that wasn’t the end of the story. Insiders told us that Hall found out Kelly was taking over the 9 a.m. “Today” show time slot — which she hosted with Al Roker — minutes before Hall went on air. “She was devastated to get the news. It was almost an Ann Curry moment live again on TV,” a source told us.
NBC News immediately came under fire for replacing its first black female anchor with Kelly. The National Association of Black Journalists sent a letter accusing the network of “whitewashing.”
By the end of February, the network had even more drama on its hands when sources told Page Six that one of its own staffers was responsible for leaking the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape that ended Billy Bush’s NBC career. A source told us, “The leaked tape served a dual purpose: It helped get Bush out of the way — Matt Lauer didn’t like him and felt he was a liability — and NBC thought it would derail [Donald] Trump.”
March
If you thought the Michael Strahan ABC drama from 2016 was over, you would be wrong. In March, we exclusively reported that “Good Morning America” anchors were already sick of their newest co-worker getting preferential treatment. Insiders told us at the time that Lara Spencer felt “her role has been minimized with Strahan there” and George Stephanopoulos was “bored with the fluff.”
May
After months of looking for the perfect co-host, ABC finally announced Ryan Seacrest would be filling Michael Strahan’s old role on “Live.” In May, ABC acquired “American Idol,” and sources at the time told Page Six it was a rough week for Ripa, who feared a Strahan repeat. “She wants to make sure her show is Ryan’s first priority, not ‘Idol,’” a source told us.
June
Some morning show drama wasn’t started within the show itself this year. In the case of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” the president of the United States began a feud when he went on a Twitter tirade against Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, writing: “I heard poorly rated @Morning_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came…to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!”
Brzezinski and Scarborough, who got engaged in May, postponed a vacation so they could respond to Trump’s attack on their show. Brzezinski said that Trump’s comments didn’t bother her personally, but she was concerned about what it meant for the United States. The couple also wrote a column in the Washington Post that read, “Putting aside Mr. Trump’s never-ending obsession with women’s blood, Mika and her face were perfectly intact, as pictures from that night reveal,” adding, “Mika has never had a face-lift.”
Back in Megyn Kelly’s corner of the world, she managed to anger everyone by setting up an interview with controversial Infowars host Alex Jones, who infamously called the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School a hoax. Outraged by the interview, which was set to air on a Sunday night, the Sandy Hook Promise Gala in DC immediately dumped her as host. NBC held crisis meetings about how to handle the backlash.
“I find Alex Jones’ suggestion that Sandy Hook was ‘a hoax’ as personally revolting as every other rational person does,” Kelly said. “It left me, and many other Americans, asking the very question that prompted this interview: How does Jones, who traffics in these outrageous conspiracy theories, have the respect of the president of the United States and a growing audience of millions?”
In the end, she did the interview, but the NBC station in Connecticut did not air it.
July
On a lighter note, “GMA” got a new anchor desk in July to cover up the fact that George Stephanopoulos is extremely short compared to his tall co-hosts Robin Roberts and Michael Strahan.
Meanwhile, thanks to the feud with Trump, “Morning Joe” ratings skyrocketed.
August
Ahead of Megyn Kelly’s big morning-show debut, the buzz was that her co-workers were already “outraged” by her “divalike ways.” According to an insider, NBC went on a lavish spending spree for their newest host.
September
ABC continued to have Michael Strahan drama in September when the anchor wouldn’t cut his vacation on a Greek yacht short to help cover Hurricane Harvey. “ABC is really upset with him,” a source said. But Michael Corn, senior executive producer of “GMA,” told us, “Michael was very clear he wanted to be part of the coverage, and we decided the best plan was for him to lead the charge covering the recovery.” However, it’s worth noting that Robin Roberts came back from her vacation early to pitch in.
It was a relatively quiet year for “The View,” which is known for its revolving door of co-hosts, except that in September, Jedediah Bila announced she was leaving. According to a source, the staff was upset with how the conservative host handled the show’s interview with Hillary Clinton, yet we’re told that “she left of her own accord.” Meghan McCain was quickly set as her replacement.
Another month, and more Megyn Kelly drama. During her first week on air with “Megyn Kelly Today,” she sparked outrage when she asked a “Will & Grace” fan on-air, “Is it true that you became a lawyer, and you became gay, because of Will? … I don’t know about the lawyer thing, but I think that ‘Will & Grace’ thing and the gay thing is going to work out great.” The comment prompted star Debra Messing to say she was “dismayed” and even “regrets going on” the program. The problem with Messing badmouthing Kelly? “Will & Grace” also airs on NBC, leading the network to instruct Messing to “cut it out.”
The cherry on top of a dramatic September was when Kelly brought up Jane Fonda’s plastic surgery while interviewing her about a new movie. “We really want to talk about that now?” Fonda shot back. It was a rough first week for Kelly.
October
Things were not looking up for Megyn Kelly in October. Ratings for her hour of “Today” were down 32 percent compared to a year ago and Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb had also “taken a huge hit with Megyn as their lead-in,” an insider said. Not to mention, Matt Lauer didn’t stick up for her when he was told celebrities were avoiding her hour of the show.
Over at ABC, multiple sources revealed to Page Six that Kelly Ripa demanded co-host Ryan Seacrest cancel an appearance at “GMA” at the last minute. “Kelly threw a s–t fit and told him he couldn’t do ‘GMA,’ so he pulled his appearance,” an insider told us, adding that Seacrest didn’t want to upset Ripa.
Wendy Williams wasn’t safe from morning show drama, either. On Halloween, the host gave everyone a fright when she collapsed on live TV while dressed as Lady Liberty. “That was not a stunt,” she explained after an extended commercial break. “I’m overheated in my costume and I did pass out.” A source told Page Six the staff was worried about Williams amid reports her husband had been cheating on her with a massage therapist. Williams has denied the rumors.
November
After the bombshell Harvey Weinstein exposés and the slew of sexual harassment claims that followed, it was no surprise that the morning show world was hit with its own scandals. Toward the end of November, news broke that CBS and PBS had fired Charlie Rose after eight women came forward accusing him of sexual misconduct, including allegations of groping and getting naked in their presence. Additional women, including CBS News employees and a former intern, subsequently came forward.
Rose’s “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King said on-air of the scandal, “I really am still reeling. I got an hour and 42 minutes of sleep last night. Both my son and my daughter called me. Oprah called me and said, ‘Are you OK?’ I am not OK.” The network was left scrambling to find someone to fill in for Rose, and we were told execs were “begging” King’s best pal Oprah Winfrey to stand in temporarily.
However, the biggest morning show scandal of the year happened in the final days of November when Matt Lauer was fired from NBC over “inappropriate sexual behavior,” which allegedly took place during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The longtime “Today” anchor was subsequently accused of gifting a co-worker a sex toy, exposing himself to another colleague and sexting female staffers. The 59-year-old immediately fled the city for his home in the Hamptons, where his wife and children live.
“I’m heartbroken for Matt. He is my dear, dear friend and my partner, and he has been loved by many people here,” Savannah Guthrie said on air in announcing Lauer’s termination. Sources told Variety that Lauer’s behavior “wasn’t even considered a secret” and was known by many employees at “Today,” including ones who claimed on air they hadn’t known.
The following day, Lauer broke his silence and apologized for his actions. “To the people I have hurt, I am truly sorry,” he said in a statement.
As if all that wasn’t enough for two days, multiple sources told Page Six that Megyn Kelly was gunning for Lauer’s job.
December
The Lauer scandal continued well into the holiday season. On Dec. 1, two days after the news broke, NBC scrubbed all memory of Lauer from 30 Rock. The network demolished his office, ripped his nameplate from the building and destroyed all photos of him from his 20-year career there. We were also told he went on an apology tour to former colleagues with personal emails. On top of that, NBC decided that Lauer wouldn’t get his $30 million payout from the network.
NBC News is now requiring staff to take anti-harassment training in the wake of Lauer’s firing and has issued strict new anti-harassment rules, including that staffers must rat out any misbehaving colleagues or face getting fired. And while Lauer’s personal life crumbled, “Today” ratings have soared in the aftermath of the scandal.
Let’s see what 2018 holds for the world of morning shows.