The Today Show Wanted to Swipe Robin Roberts

As NY Times Reporter Brian Stelter continues his book tour, he dropped another juicy tid-bit.

NBC's Today Show was looking to steal Robin Roberts away from Good Morning America.

“NBC had done a lot of research about Robin Roberts and they found she is by far the most popular female morning show host,” Stelter said about the plot in a recent interview.

“One person in a focus groups told me,  ‘Robin can do no wrong.’”

TODAY lost its decade-long hold on the No. 1 spot in the morning ratings race to Roberts and GMA, as Ann Curry became the center of controversy for the peacock network, which coldly dumped her from the anchor chair.

But before Curry’s demise, TODAY bosses plotted to get Roberts to their network but simply couldn’t make it happen.

“Jim Bell wanted to meet with Robin but it never took place,” Stelter said about the then-executive producer of TODAY.

“There’s no war in TV better than TODAY versus Good Morning America,” he added, and his book, Inside the Cutthroat World Of Morning TV reveals lots of juicy details proving that point.

When Katie Couric briefly returned to morning TV by appearing on GMA it caused quite a stir.

“I don’t know if Matt Lauer thought Katie Couric was a traitor for going on GMA but a lot of the staff did,” Stelter revealed.

According to Stelter’s book, Couric filling in for Roberts, “sideswiped NBC. None of the senior leaders of the news division were in New York when it was announced…Now suddenly, their underlings (TODAY bosses) had to scramble to come up with counter-programming–which put them in a foul frame of mind….others called Couric a traitor outright. NBC however had to fight back. What was it going to do, roll over and let GMA win?”

​H/T Radar Online