CBS's The Early Show fell long ago and might never get up, but for a while, ABC's Good Morning America appeared within striking distance of Today. Shortly before Couric left, GMA had closed the viewership gap, with fewer than half a million separating them. With hippie mother hen Meredith Vieira now settling in with her passive-aggressive cohost Matt Lauer, Today has since regained its morale and reclaimed its momentum, even though their lead hovers within the 700,000-viewer ballpark, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Today has been on top so long that having to fend off GMA is something of an indignity, which is interesting, considering that GMA is actually the better show. It has been for a while, but never more so than lately, since the exclusion of Charles Gibson, who sitting or standing or talking beside cohosts Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts often looked like one of those goofy-looking cardboard cutouts. With Gibson off saving us all on ABC's World News Tonight, Sawyer and Roberts (the former sportscaster from ESPN) have become television's most delicious tandem since Alice and Ralph Kramden.

Entertainment and information don't drive morning television; comfort and reassurance do. A host's tone has to be firm and precise, soothing and chummy. He or she must demonstrate a lovely gentleness and a genuine curiosity about darn near everything, from wildfires engulfing Malibu homes to Britney Spears's divorce - it is, to say the least, the toughest job in television news. It's the one place you have to be yourself and expect millions of people to like you.