Article: Mornings with Meredith: replacing Katie Couric as Matt Lauer's sidekick on the Today show was a risky career move for veteran journalist Meredith Vieira. Would the public accept her? Would the ratings hold? Would she ever get used to the 3:00 a.m. wake-up call?(Interview)(Cover story)

Meredith Vieira's alarm clock, strategically placed on husband Richard's side of the bed, blasts forth at 2:30 a.m. She allows herself thirty minutes of extra doze time before reluctantly padding downstairs to where Jasper, Felipe, and Sweet Pea await their breakfast. "They're on my schedule," says Vieira, explaining the eating habits of the family's dog and cats. The "schedule" is dictated by Meredith's job as cohost of Today, NBC's venerable morning news show now in its 56th year.

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Replacing the popular Katie Couric as the program's in 2006 was a risky career move for Vieira. She had been comfortably juggling her roles as host of Who Wants to ...

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