I worked in television news for more than a decade. I know all about the gimmicks, stunts and over-the-top stories news directors pepper their shows with during the critical November ratings period. That said there’s no reason I should be surprised that NBC is sending their “Today” show anchors to the “Ends of the Earth” in a feature that begins airing Monday. However, I do question why they chose newsreader Ann Curry to be the one to climb Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro.
I guess Matt and Meredith refused.
As a ratings stunt the popular morning show is sending Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira, Al Roker and Curry to exotic locales around the world to report on environmental issues.
According to show producers, Vieira will be in Australia reporting on drought conditions, Roker is in geologically active Iceland and Lauer, who globe-trots regularly on his “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” segment, will be exploring the natural beauty of Belize.
Meanwhile, 51-year-old Curry (she turns 52 on Wednesday) is huddled up on the side of a mountain missing her husband and two young children.
“This is like climbing a Stairmaster for six hours a day with 20 pounds on your back,” Curry said in a telephone interview with reporters as she dripped dry in her tent following Saturday’s rainy climb.
Curry fully admits that she is far from a professional climber. In fact, the journalist says she only learned of her assignment three weeks ago, giving her little time to train. Still, “Today” producers are hoping she makes it to the top saying Curry’s climb is plotted out so that if she does make it to the summit of the 19,000-plus-foot Tanzanian mountain, it will be shown during Friday’s show.
“To be honest with you, I’m not sure I’m going to make it to the top,” Curry told reporters. “But all the pain and suffering is worth it because of the incredible vistas all around me.”
The morning show’s executive producer said, the mountain made famous in Ernest Hemingway’s short story “The Snows of Kilimanjaro,” was selected because that snow is rapidly melting and there is concern the mountain’s glaciers could soon disappear.
I can just imagine what Curry thought when she was told she’d be sent on assignment to a place where she’d be trekking it uphill for six hours each day, with no running water, toilets or shelter beyond a traveling tent. This while her colleagues are living it up in balmy Belize and sunny Australia.