Stelter has a flowery writing style. I didn't like it. It seems to be an effort to appeal to non TV types, so in a way, I understand what he was going for.
The vast majority of the book is spent discussing the fight for first place between ABC's "Good Morning America" and NBC's "Today." It's a fight ABC has been winning for the last nine months.
"Today" has been struggling. Ratings began to erode in the last of the Meredith Vieira days, and there was an acceleration of that under the miscast Ann Curry. The latter was thrown overboard last year, and "Today" is still a long, long away from recovering. "Top of the Morning" goes into the Curry thing with great detail. While I think she wasn't right for a morning TV anchor job, she was treated horribly.
There is more than enough blame to go around. "Today" lost its focus. What little charm Matt Lauer had faded under intense scrutiny. Al Roker's act is tired. "Good Morning America" simply found its stride, and the people there look like they're having more fun. You want them in your home, rather than the dour "Today" bunch. Yes, "GMA" is a little light for my tastes. But then again, I'm not the target audience.
Let me go off a little bit on Matt Lauer. I think he's OK. Just OK. He had the good fortune of taking over "Today" at a time when "GMA" was imploding. Remember Kevin Newman and Lisa McRee? ABC News didn't know whether it wanted "Good Morning America" to be newsy or fluffy. Viewers never knew what they'd find at 7 AM. While Lauer didn't do anything to screw it up, until recently, he was like the guy who was born on third base and thought he'd hit a triple. In light of the Curry debacle, when people started to watch closely, viewers discovered there wasn't much to Matt Lauer.
The Lauer rehabilitation tour makes me chuckle. He yukked it up with Leno and Ellen, trying to show he's a regular, nice guy. The act is transparent.
There isn't much space devoted to CBS and its attempt to create a morning broadcast for the umpteenth time. It's a less juicy story, but one that's far more interesting.
I did enjoy reading how the ABC cast came together, and how they all dealt with Robin Roberts' illness. There was a lot I didn't know. The rest of the ABC/NBC stuff has already been in the New York Post.
"Top of the Morning" is a breezy, easy summertime read. Although, there are times it seems more like the National Enquirer than the work of a New York Times writer.
