How to get on the Today Show: contact, pitch and what producers want

By Zach Schleien

The email TODAY lists for story ideas, which hour fits your story, who to pitch at TODAY.com, and what to write so a producer replies.

To get on the Today Show, email your story idea to todaystories@nbcuni.com, the address TODAY lists on its own site for story ideas, and pitch the editor or producer who covers your topic directly. I couldn't find a guest booking form on TODAY's site, so your idea and the person you send it to decide whether you hear back.

I've earned 200+ media placements across 25+ countries, including 18 TV appearances and 52 major publications, and I've never hired a PR agency. The method has three parts: find the angle, find the person who covers it, and pitch at volume. Here's how that works for TODAY.

Rather not pitch the Today Show yourself? I can pitch them for you. Book a press call.

Key takeaways

• Story ideas go to todaystories@nbcuni.com. TODAY asks for your name, your message and the best way to get in touch.
• TODAY runs several shows and a separate website team, so pick one hour or one section before you write anything.
• The TODAY digital masthead lists editors by beat, such as food, parents, health and nutrition. It shows no email addresses.
• Serious news tips go to NBC News at tips@nbcuni.com, or through Signal or SecureDrop.
• A pitch needs a reason to run this week, a person viewers can watch, and something useful they can do after the segment.

What the Today Show covers and which hour fits you

TODAY is NBC's morning show. Its About page says the show "seeks to inform, entertain, inspire and set the agenda each morning for Americans." It runs as several shows across the week, so the first job is picking the one your story belongs on.

• TODAY, weekdays from 7 in the morning. Co-anchored by Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin. This is the news block, so it needs the strongest reason to run right now.
• 3rd Hour of TODAY, 9 in the morning. TODAY's page for this hour collects recipes, holiday gift guides and entertainment interviews. If you're a chef, a dietitian or a founder with a giftable product, start here.
• TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle, 10 in the morning. Hosted by Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones. Its page shows celebrity interviews, fashion, weddings and fitness, plus Read With Jenna, where "each month Jenna Bush Hager picks a new book to read together and discuss."
• Saturday TODAY, 7 in the morning. Laura Jarrett is listed as a co-anchor.
• Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist, 8 in the morning. Its page highlights Sunday Sitdown, the show's interview segment.

TODAY.com is the other way in. It has its own team of writers, reporters and editors, with sections including Food, Health & Wellness, Parents, Life, Pop Culture, Books and Relationships. The site says it will "seek advice from leading lifestyle experts," and it also carries "more tips from lifestyle experts on the show."

If you're an expert or a founder without TV clips yet, I'd start with TODAY.com. A published story gives a producer something to look at when they decide if you can hold a segment. Press builds on itself. Jay Shetty mentioned Filteroff on his podcast without me ever pitching him, because of the other press we'd already earned.

Products have their own route. Shop TODAY says it's "editorially independent," and that it recommends products based on testing plus "expert feedback from source interviews and internal product pitches for broadcast segments." I found no public way to submit a product there, so you'd reach a Shop TODAY editor directly with a reason your product fits a guide they're already building.

How to find the right producer or editor

Your press list is every person at an outlet who covers your topic. At one outlet that can be up to about 20 reporters. I always treat the reporter and their beat as the target, never the logo.

TODAY gives you more to work with than most shows:

1. Read the masthead. TODAY's digital masthead is on its About section, under the title Meet the TODAY Digital Team. It lists a Senior Food Editor, Senior Parents Editor, Health Editor, Nutrition Editor, Senior Diet & Fitness Editor, Senior Entertainment Editor, Trending Editors and reporters, plus lifestyle video producers. It shows no email addresses.
2. Open author pages. A TODAY.com author page lists a writer's role and beat. The two I checked showed no email address or social links.
3. Find the show's producers elsewhere. I found no public list of TODAY's broadcast segment producers on its site. Search LinkedIn for "producer" plus TODAY, then read their history for the topics they've booked.
4. Don't guess an email address. If you can't confirm a person's address, send your idea to todaystories@nbcuni.com. A guessed address bounces, or lands with someone who has nothing to do with your topic.

If a local station fits you better than a network show, I listed the routes for WGN in Chicago and KTLA in Los Angeles.

How to contact the Today Show

These are the routes TODAY and NBC News list on their own pages:

• Story ideas: todaystories@nbcuni.com. In TODAY's words: "Have a story idea for TODAY? Please send an email to todaystories@nbcuni.com with your name, message and the best way to get in touch."
• Comments and concerns: contact.today@nbcuni.com.
• Press inquiries: NBCNewsMediaRelations@nbcuni.com. This one is for press inquiries, so it isn't where I'd send a pitch about your business.
• News tips: NBC News lists tips@nbcuni.com as its general newsroom inbox, plus Signal at +1-646-858-9310, SecureDrop through the Tor browser, and mail to Tips c/o NBC News, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112. NBC says "a good tip is specific, backed up by evidence or documentation, and includes the names of people or organizations whom we can contact to verify the information." It also says it may not respond to every message.
• Callouts: TODAY sometimes asks viewers for specific stories. One Jenna & Sheinelle page asked viewers to share their love story and said "we may feature you on our show." Another video on its site is titled How to Apply to Be Part of a Jenna & Sheinelle Cooking Segment. If a callout matches your story, use that route first.

What TODAY looks for, with example angles

TODAY.com describes its work this way: "Service is at the heart of our storytelling; we unpack and simplify trends, spotlight the people shaping our news." In plain terms, that's two kinds of story: useful advice for the person watching, and a person worth watching.

TODAY's standards also say "we base our reporting on named sources," so be ready to go on the record with your real name and your real numbers.

Here are examples written for TODAY's audience. These are made-up examples so you can see the shape of each one.

• Expert with a seasonal reason. A pediatric sleep coach shows parents three changes that cut school morning fights, pitched the week school starts.
• A person with a story. A nurse who got laid off started driving meals to new moms on her block and now has a waitlist.
• A demo for the 3rd Hour. A dietitian makes three 10-minute dinners from what's already in the pantry.
• A product tied to a guide. A small candle maker shows three gifts for a teacher, pitched to a Shop TODAY editor before the holidays.
• Your own numbers. You survey 1,000 of your customers about something parents argue about and share the result nobody else has.

The strongest thing I know how to do is attach your story to what everyone already covers. When gas prices spiked, my angle became that high gas prices mean fewer first dates. During COVID I pitched essentially every journalist covering the pandemic with one idea: singles stuck at home were video dating on Filteroff to find love in lockdown. BBC and the New York Times followed within weeks.

You can also take the same story to morning TV more than once with a new angle. My dad's COVID recovery went to Fox News, Good Morning America, CNN's Don Lemon, CBS and WABC as a survival story. It came back in May with a children's health angle, and in September with the school reopening debate. I wrote the same kind of guide for Good Morning America if that morning show fits you better.

And you don't have to be big. Filteroff had around 500 users and a team of two when the BBC's CLICK featured us, and it took under two weeks from pitch to publication.

A short pitch to TODAY can look like this one, which is another made-up example:

Subject: Sleep coach demo for the first week of school Hi [first name], Parents are about to start the school morning fight again. I'm a pediatric sleep coach, and I can show your viewers three changes they can make tonight. I've got a mom who'll talk on camera about what changed for her family. Would you like to interview me about it? I can do a live segment or a short demo in New York next week. [Name], [phone number]

That question at the end is one I've used myself. "Would you like to interview the founder?" got me booked on live TV. For more to copy from, I wrote out six pitches in Media pitch examples and the full method in How to write a PR pitch.

A do-it-yourself checklist

1. Pick one hour or one TODAY.com section.
2. Watch that hour for a week and write down who gets booked and what they do on air.
3. Write your idea in one sentence. If you can't, it's not ready.
4. Add the reason it should run this week, such as a season, a study or something in the news.
5. Make a list of every editor and producer who covers that topic.
6. Write one master pitch, then change the name and the first line for each person.
7. Record a short clip of yourself talking, so a producer can see how you sound on camera.
8. Send it to the people on your list, and send your idea to todaystories@nbcuni.com too.
9. Follow up once with something new. A new fact, a new date or a new person who'll talk.

Mistakes that get pitches ignored

• Sending a press release. In my Top Romp days I sent about 20 to 40 press releases to company contact pages and got zero replies. It changed when I watched my friend Michael pitch and copied how he did it.
• Pitching your company. A product launch isn't a segment. A sleep coach showing parents what to do tonight is.
• Using the wrong inbox. Comments and press inquiries have their own addresses. Your pitch goes to story ideas or to the right person.
• Treating the plaza as a pitch. TODAY says the plaza is first-come, first-served and cameras feature the audience during the show. That gets you on camera for a moment, but it doesn't get you a segment.
• Stopping after one no. I sent roughly 70 pitches to every New York Times writer covering one beat to land my dad's op-ed. One of them forwarded it to the op-ed editor.