Posts Tagged ‘ann curry’

What you need to know about Savannah Guthrie

Posted on: June 30th, 2012 by

Eric L. Bach CPAI’m sure those of you following this Ann Curry departure saga at the TODAY show are fairly regular watchers.  We are all familiar with Savannah, as she has been a legal correspondent, as well as a co-host during the 9 o’clock hour of the TODAY show.  She’s smart, she’s bubbly, and, yet, there is much more to her pretty face.  Here are 10 things you should, or may just want to know about your new co-host:

1. She’s not named for the city in Georgia. She was actually named after her great-grandmother. And her middle name is Clark. (So is her grandmother’s.)

2. Australia born, Arizona raised. Guthrie grew up in Tucson, Ariz., where she attended Amphitheater High School, graduating in the same class as Olympic medalist and NFL player Michael Bates.

But she was actually born in Melbourne, Australia, where her father was stationed for work. She lived there two years before the family returned to the United States.

3. Higher education. Guthrie earned an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Arizona in 1993, where she graduated cum laude.

Years later, in the midst of a thriving broadcast journalism career, Guthrie attended Georgetown University Law Center. She earned her Juris Doctor there in 2002, graduating magna cum laude.

Guthrie is also a teacher: She led a first-year Legal Research and Writing workshop for first-year Georgetown law students.

4. She scored highest in the Arizona bar exam. Of the 634 people who took the Arizona bar exam in July 2002, Guthrie scored the highest, according to the state Supreme Court.

After also passing the D.C. bar, she worked as a litigation associate, specializing in white-collar criminal defense at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a D.C. law firm.

5. Broadcasting bona fides. Guthrie got her first break in broadcast journalism in 1993 with a weekend anchor gig for the ABC affiliate in Columbia, Mo. In 1995, she moved back to Tucson to work as an anchor and reporter at the NBC affiliate.

She left for Washington, D.C., in 2000, where she worked as a freelance reporter at NBC affiliate WRC-TV, covering the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the 2001 anthrax mailings.

She joined Court TV (now truTV) in 2002 while working at Akin Gump, where she worked as the national trial correspondent, covering such high-profile cases as the Michael Jackson molestation case, the Boston clergy sex abuse scandal trial and the sentencing of Martha Stewart.

6. A quick rise at Today. After serving as NBC News White House correspondent from December 2008 to June 2011, reporting for NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams, Today and MSNBC (where she co-hosted The Daily Rundown for a little over a year), Guthrie was asked to join Today full time in June 2011 as co-host of the show’s third hour. She also serves as the show’s chief legal analyst.

7. She plays hardball. Guthrie has said that her approach to any interview is “to try to think of the one question they would rather not be asked, just to see what they would say.”

8. She isn’t immune to controversy. In a Today Show segment from August 2011, Guthrie asked a doctor guest if “it’s proper to breastfeed in public.” Later, she compared breastfeeding to going to the bathroom, saying, “You have to go to the bathroom but you don’t do that in public, hopefully. Is there a difference?”

The comments earned an angry protest on Twitter, where outraged moms marked their outraged tweets with the hashtag #NIP (a punny acronym for “not in public”).

9. She is single. Guthrie met her husband, then-BBC journalist Mark Orchard, while both covered the Jackson trial in 2005. The two married December 2005, but the marriage had dissolved by January 2009.

Guthrie was later romantically linked to political consultant Mi­chael Feldman, a former aide to Al Gore.

10. Her dream is to play guitar with Shawn Colvin and Patty Griffin. She admitted this in a question-and-answer session with Today viewers.


Ann Curry leaves ‘TODAY’

Posted on: June 28th, 2012 by

TODAY show - Eric L. Bach & AssociatesAnn Curry announced, just before the 9 o’clock hour, that she will be stepping down as co-host of the TODAY show. She stated that she will be taking on a new challenge at NBC News.  As TODAY Anchor at Large and National and International Correspondent for NBC News, Curry will lead a new team covering stories spanning the globe.  She’ll anchor prime-time specials and report for TODAY, Nightly News, Rock Center, Dateline and MSNBC, and will have a major presence across all digital properties.

“We’re going to go all over the world and all over this country at a time where this world needs clarity,” she said.   “After all these years I don’t even know if I can sleep in anymore,” she joked.  Matt, Al and Natalie “seemed” to express their love. “You have the biggest heart in the business,” Matt said.  “You put that on display every single day for almost 20 years.  Most importantly, you’ve made us better, and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

Over 15 years at NBC News, Ann has covered violence and ethnic cleansing in Sudan, interviewed the Dalai Lama, reported from Japan after 2011’s devastating earthquake and tsunami and broke the news that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would release the two American hikers held hostage in that country for two years.  She has earned seven Emmy Awards.  “I know of only one journalist who in just a matter of years has travelled to Sudan six times, broken exclusive world news with top world leaders, and broadcast live from both the South Pole and Mount Kilimanjaro,” said TODAY Executive Producer Jim Bell.  “Ann has quite literally reached amazing heights in her career, and with this new role, she will continue her intrepid climb bringing viewers her signature brand of humanitarian reporting.”

At this point, there is no word on the deal she struck with NBC to leave TODAY, but it has been rumored that she was asking for the remainder of her contract, $20 million.  Nothing has been announced officially, but the front runner for her position is Savannah Guthrie.  It has also been swirling that Natalie was threatening to quit if she was passed over again, as well as Matt’s wife threatening to divorce him if Natalie gets the position.  I’m sure many of these rumors will be addressed throughout the day.  Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Matt Lauer’s wife WILL be accompanying him, along with his 3 children to the Olympic games in London this summer.  She generally not travel with him, as it is a lot of work to tote along 3 children, let alone across an ocean.  They will be staying at a different hotel then the rest of the cast and crew.  Annette clearly still has concerns about Natalie and is not taking any chances.   Radar Online reported, “Annette has made no bones about the fact she will be keeping close tabs on Matt.”

All of this controversy stems from rumors that seem to never cease about Matt Lauer cheating on his wife.  It had once been said he had an extramarital affair with Meredith Vieira, as well as fathering a love child with Natalie Morales.  Are the tabloids right?  Is Matt not the family man he portrays on tv?

UPDATE:  Savannah Guthrie will be taking over Ann’s chair next to Matt tomorrow morning.  TMZ has also reported that, “it’s ‘likely’ they will formally announce the big switch during the show.”

UPDATE: No replacement has been named as of yet.  It appears it is still up in the air.  They are still debating between Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie.

UPDATE: Savannah Guthrie HAS been named, on the TODAY show website, as the new co-anchor of the TODAY show.  She will now officially be sitting alongside Matt Lauer each morning.