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"Today" viewers who have abandoned the show over the past few years have turned to "Good Morning America" instead.
• "Today" is devoting itself to a mission statement that involves substance, making connections with viewers and offering people who watch something uplifting, Turness said. She pointed to stories in recent weeks involving Bradley Manning's sex change, interrogation footage of Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro and Matt Lauer's interviews with Paula Deen and Alex Rodriguez's lawyer.
• "We are a news show," Turness said. "I'll say it again. We are a news show."
• At the same time, she said the show's promise is that "even in the darkness, we will seek the light." She mentioned how Lauer was on the scene when the spire of the One World Trade Center tower was put into place.
• Besides the studio, some of the other changes are cosmetic, and reference back to the show's history. With a sunrise in its logo, NBC stations across the country are putting cameras on the roof to catch video of the sun rising and "Today" is asking viewers to send in their own sunrise pictures to show on the air.
• Lauer said that the mission statement and tightening of the show's focus is appreciated. "We were occupying too wide a space for a while," he said.
• The show is using relevance as a standard for the stories it puts on the air, "and that's much different from 'buzzy,'" he said.
• Lauer, who has teamed with co-host Savannah Guthrie for more than a year now, would not say how long he wanted to stay with the show. He said the changes, which Turness has overseen with executive producer Don Nash, has made things more exciting.
• "The new direction of the show is something that has me more invigorated than I have been in a long time," he said.
• Daly's addition adds uncertainty to the future of his "Last Call" late night show. NBC's entertainment division said it has no plans to cancel the show and is figuring out a transition plan.
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