‘Meredith Vieira’: Let The Promotion Begin

The Meredith Vieira Show from NBCUniversal Domestic Television Distribution won’t debut in broadcast syndication until early September, but the push to get people to watch it has already begun.

Vieira appeared last month on NBC’s Tonight Show with Jay Leno where she spoke about the show, and she will be talking it up at meetings with broadcasters and reporters at the NATPE conference in Miami Beach, Fla., later this month.

She will be highly visible on NBC for two weeks next month (Feb. 6-23) as a reporter and host of the opening ceremonies at the Sochi Winter Olympics. And Meredith’s launch group, NBC Owned Television Stations, plans to make the most of it.

“It’s too good of a promotional opportunity to pass up,” says Valari Staab, president of NBC Owned Television Stations. “We are working on something to say Meredith is coming in the fall.”

Other station groups, like Sinclair Broadcast Group, which will air Meredith on 17 stations, will begin promoting the show after the May sweeps. Sinclair will initially use spots that tease the show. Promos will get longer and more detailed as the summer progresses.

Meredith should also get a boost from Vieira’s YouTube program, Lives with Meredith Vieira. On Lives, women talk about light and serious topics and sometimes mix it up with celebrities.

“It’s a great place for me to experiment for my show,” says Vieira. “There are things on Lives that will become part of my show.”

NBCUniversal has yet to make plans for local promotions, but Vieira says that she is game. “I’ll do whatever is asked of me.”

The NBC O&Os haven’t completed their scheduling of the show, which will tape before a live audience at NBC’s 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City on a set that looks like Vieira’s home — including an old, beat-up chair.

In some markets, Meredith will lead out of the fourth hour of Today with Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb. In others, it will lead into the afternoon block of NBCUniversal’s Steve Harvey and Warner Bros.’ Ellen.

“Ellen DeGeneres was great about welcoming Steve Harvey to the lineup,” says Staab. “They did some fun combination spots. They’re both very open to taking a similar approach to welcome Meredith when it starts. Ellen and Steve want that block to work because it’s better for their shows.”

Meredith, so far cleared in 90% of the United States, is being sold in mostly two-year deals on a cash-plus-barter basis (4 national minutes, 11 local minutes).

Vieira is a well known TV personality whom daytime viewers will immediately recognize. For five years, starting in 2006, she co-hosted Today. In 1997, she became one of the original co-hosts of ABC’s daytime talk show The View. From 2002 until 2013, she hosted Disney-ABC game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire. She previously worked for ABC News and CBS News.

Her new talk show will focus on lifestyle tips from experts and interviews mostly with everyday people, but sometimes with celebrities.

“We’re still shaping the show, but I describe it as having ‘heat, heart and humor,’ ” Vieira says. “There will be discussion about issues I care about and that the audience cares about. I’m not going to do shtick; that’s not me, but I’m a goofball. Mostly the show will have heart. We’re trying to inspire people in the stories we talk about. There are so many people out there doing important things. We’ll include that every day. The last segment will be something you can take away.”

“The top of the show will always be the same, unless there is a very big story we want to talk about,” she says. “And we may have experts on the show. It won’t be every day, but we are going to build our own group of friends who our audience at home will get to know. There’s something comfortable about familiarity.”

NBCUniversal, which last summer brought in executive producer Rich Sirop, is still hiring staffers.

The show will have an announcer/sidekick, said to be a close friend of Vieira. Vieira says an announcement on that is coming soon.

The show will also have a live band, she says. “There will be segments where the band will be the focus. They will do segments with our television audience.”

Media buyers and other syndicator followers see Meredith as a mid-tier daytime show. “I think the show will do OK,” says Susan McClellan, senior national broadcast strategist at Empower MediaMarketing. “I don’t think it will be on par with Ellen or Oprah Winfrey. I think it will be more in line with Steve Harvey or [Sony Pictures Television’s] Queen Latifah.”

This season through mid December, Ellen has a 1.8 rating among women 25-54. Steve has a 1.0 in the demo; Queen, a 0.7 rating.

“From the perspective of advertisers and advertising researchers analyzing the show, you can’t help but start your analysis with [Disney-ABC’s]  Katie,” says Sam Armando, SVP and director of Starcom MediaVest Group’s SMGx Strategic Intelligence.

Like Vieira, Katie host Katie Couric co-anchored NBC’s Today for several years, Armando points out.

Katie won’t be coming back this fall for a third season mostly because its production costs are too high relative to its ratings. It’s been delivering a 0.9 in the demo.

If Meredith generates ratings comparable to Katie’s, it could be considered a keeper because the show costs significantly less to produce than Katie.

Armando expects viewers to give Meredith a try September, particularly in markets where it leads into Steve Harvey.

“It is an advantage to have a notable lead-out,” he says. “That will help with sampling. But from that point on, the success of Meredith will depend on the show and how well she does in a talk show role.”

Media consultant Shari Anne Brill, principal analyst at Shari Anne Brill Media, is also optimistic about the show.

“Meredith Vieira is good at this,” she says. “She knows how to work an audience. She was very popular on The View, which is in front of a live audience. People like her. She is more likeable than Katie Couric. She is down to earth and accessible. She’s real and relatable. That bodes well for her.”