Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV: Brian Stelter: 9781455512881: Amazon.com: Books
As for most Americans, morning tv has been a small but pleasant part of my morning routine for most of my life. Up until about a decade ago, it provided a quick bit of news, maybe an interview or book discussion. Mostly it provided continuity. In a world where people are constantly changing jobs (not always voluntarily) it was nice to get used to the hosts. On 9/11 it gave many people the feeling that they were not alone, as they watched the attack on the United States, in real time.
But in the last decade the predictable mix if news, entertainment and weather has deteriorated. How many lost blonde young women are we supposed to watch? How many pregnant wives who disappear. How many vacationing honeymooners who come back from cruises single.
Top of the Morning goes into the macinations, jockeying for position, and office politics of the networks that employ the morning teams. It's not a pretty picture. It was nice to see that the GMA team gets along. Not so nice to see the mess on Today. Fun to see CBS pull ahead. Is this important stuff? No, but it's fun.