NBC Shuffle Hangs Question Mark Over 'Today'

NBC News is practicing addition by subtraction. Phil Griffin, the senior vice president who has been running MSNBC for the past two years, was promoted to president of the cable network this afternoon. Or maybe that should be "promoted," since the only major change to Griffin's duties is he will no longer be overseeing Today, by far the news division's most profitable program, and one that accounts for 23 hours of airtime per week. (He'll also be adding responsibility for news specials.)

The timing is interesting, coming just as many at the show are bracing for another big change: Executive producer Jim Bell is widely thought to be the leading candidate to take over NBC Sports if and when its current chief, Dick Ebersol, steps down after the Olympics, as has been persistently rumored. (Bell came out of the sports division.) If that happens, NBC News's most valuable franchise would lose both of its guiding hands in quick succession.

What's going on here? One theory making the rounds is that NBC News chief Steve Capus is intentionally creating some elbow space for Bell's replacement, the idea being that a high-powered candidate wouldn't want to have Griffin breathing down his (or her) neck. (The next Today EP would have even more room for maneuver if Mark Whitaker, now a senior vice president based in New York, ends up replacing Tim Russert as Washington bureau chief, as some expect.)

In any case, Today can probably weather a little upheaval. The show recently achieved a four-year high mark in its ratings lead over second-place Good Morning America.