TELEVISION NOTES & NEWS
NEW YORK — Neil Patrick Harris will return as host for the Tony Awards.
The star of the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” and a Broadway veteran hosted the awards two years ago. Producers of the annual show honoring Broadway theater said he would take over from former “Will & Grace” actor Sean Hayes, who was last year's host.
Harris joked that producers of the show had borrowed the rigging equipment from the troubled “Spider-Man” musical. He asked: “What could possibly go wrong?”
This time, the ceremony will be at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan's Upper West Side after several years at Radio City Music Hall. The awards will be handed out June 12 in a telecast aired on CBS.
NEW YORK — Meredith Vieira says she is leaving NBC's “Today” show next month, and Ann Curry will replace her as host.The turnover at television's top-rated morning show was anticipated. Vieira replaced Katie Couric five years ago, and has talked about wanting to spend more time with her family. Her husband, author Richard M. Cohen, wrote a best-selling book about coping with multiple sclerosis and colon cancer.Co-host Matt Lauer said he talked to Couric about the idea of teaming for a syndicated talk show, but said he had no plans to leave the “Today” show.Curry is well-known to “Today” viewers. She has been with the show since 1997 as the news anchor. Natalie Morales, another familiar face to the show's fans, will become the regular newsreader.Vieira says she'll leave the show in June.
