Video: Snap, Crackle, Pop At Daybreak

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Phyllis McGrady certainly does not act bellicose. As executive producer of ABC's Good Morning America, she seems relaxed, soft-spoken, charming. But there she is, sitting in her Manhattan office, comparing the race among the three network morning shows to a pitched battle worthy of the Iliad. "The competition is ferocious," McGrady says. "It's war games, the combat zone." Several blocks away, Steve Friedman, executive producer of NBC's Today show, seems like ideal fishing-trip company: funny, good-hearted, gregarious. But turn to the subject of Good Morning America and Friedman climbs the ramparts. "They want us to die," he says, voice rising. "I'm telling you, it's war, and we're out there to kill them."

Welcome to the bullet-scarred land of morning television, the breakfast firing range where the three networks snap, crackle and pop for rating points. The fray has always been fierce, but the brawl for the top spot is now more frenzied than ever. After gradually closing in on Good Morning America for more than a year, the Today show has beaten or tied its ABC competitor five weeks in the past three months, thus breaking GMA's 163-week hold on first place. Though Today still spends most of its time as a close second,* the taste of victory brings fresh confidence to the NBC corridors. "We think we will be No. 1," says Today Co-Host Jane Pauley. "We've got the momentum."

Over at CBS, however, no one is dancing in the hallways. The CBS Morning

News, the perennial also-ran, is glued in third place despite the addition of Phyllis George as co-anchor. The show has been hobbled by the poor chemistry between Bill Kurtis, a seasoned television reporter from Chicago who joined the show in 1982, and George, a former Miss America with no newsgathering experience. Try as he might to banter with George, Kurtis still acted a bit like a college senior who is flattered to help the head cheerleader with her homework but is flustered by her answers. After weeks of rumors, Kurtis left the show last week; though a contract has not been signed yet, he likely will return to CBS-owned WBBM-TV in Chicago. Veteran CBS Reporter Bob Schieffer will join George until a new co-host is named, probably in the early fall.

Though George seems more comfortable on the air than when she began in January (she no longer flubs lines with abandon, like referring to Andrew Lloyd Webber as the composer of Jesus Christ Superstore), she is still capable of the silly gaffe. CBS executives stand strongly by her, even after her infamous invitation to Gary Dotson and Cathleen Crowell Webb, the main characters in the recent Chicago rape-testimony recantation, to hug on the air. "We needed a high-powered, experienced TV personality to draw people away from two established, successful competitors," says Executive Producer Jon Katz. "Phyllis George will bring a lot of people into our tent. All she needs is time."

George's arrival was accompanied by an overhaul of the show, including a new set complete with couch, brassy theme music and twisting, gridlike graphics. Estimated price tag: $2 million. Despite the show's dismal ratings, Katz remains confident. He points out that the program expanded to two hours only three years ago; before that, it split its time slot with Captain Kangaroo. "Morning News suffers, more than anything else, from not being on the air long enough," says Katz.