Cake smashed into faces, on-air bickering, gushing over cute boys--maybe Meredith Vieira's new gig isn't so different from the old one after all.
The former View cohost made her debut as Matt Lauer's coanchor on NBC's Today show Wednesday, officially bringing to a close the era of Katie Couric's perkiness and ushering in a reign of tongue-in-cheek bawdiness.
"Welcome to a very, very special morning," Lauer said at the show's start. "I have not been more excited to come to work since the day after Bryant [Gumbel] announced he was leaving."
"I feel like it's the first day of school and I'm sitting next to the cutest guy in the class," Vieira said. "I'm going to be 'the broad' in broadcasting.
"I was so nervous last night. I'm so happy! IÂ?m so excited."
After Lauer had Vieira's introduction replayed in the studio, per Today tradition, the new coanchor noted that her partner-in-crime's name came first.
"And it's gonna stay that way," he said.
Before diving too far into the day's stories, NBC also unspooled a retrospective on the morning show's new leading lady, chronicling Vieira's days as a Tab-guzzling Beatles fan, local broadcaster, persona non grata tenure at 60 Minutes, nine-year stint on The View, and, finally, her Today succession.
"It's an American institution," she said of the show. "It's a part of Americana, and it's so cool to be a part of that."
At the end of the piece, Lauer held up a controversial leg-baring Esquire photo Vieira had posed for earlier in her career. Not one to shy away from equal-opportunity mockery, the new coanchor retaliated by displaying a People magazine paparazzi shot of a surprisingly buff Lauer on vacation.
The playful vibe was renewed later in the show when Vieira, Lauer, Ann Curry and Al Roker gathered outside the revamped studio for a segment on wedding cakes.
"Just smell this cake," Lauer told Vieira, who did as she was told but narrowly avoided having her face forced into the confection. Later in the segment, Vieira got her, well, just desserts when she walked behind Lauer--who was reading from the TelePrompTer--and gave him a face full of frosting.
"That didn't take long," Roker said.
NBC Nightly News anchor--and new Couric competitor--Brian Williams also dropped by the show to wish Vieira well and give her a bouquet of flowers.
Vieira wasted little time in getting down to business, kicking off her Today show tenure by interviewing fellow network pundit and Meet the Press host Tim Russert. While hardly hard-hitting as far as political interviews go, Vieira still proved--at least to her interviewee--that she knew her stuff.
"That's the magical question," Russert said in response to a Vieira query on the Iraq war. "You have put your finger on it."
Vieira's transition to den mother of America's self-proclaimed first family hasn't been as smooth as she may have hoped.
Last month, she issued an apology to former boss Barbara Walters after she was quoted in Time magazine calling the show she decamped last spring "a joke."
Vieira wasted no time in explaining that the quote was taken out of context, a claim backed up by the editors of Time, saying the "joke" referred to the media frenzy surrounding Star Jones Reynolds' high-profile exit, not the chatfest itself.
Along with Vieira's addition, Today, which debuted in high-definition Wednesday, also showed off a new studio, eschewing the national living room decor of years past for a streamlined, bright white set.
The show signed off with another retrospective, this time highlighting Vieira's first day on the job. Surprisingly, though, the newcomer didn't close the morning show--that honor went to Roker.