Ann Curry Replacement, Savannah Guthrie, Officially Debuts on "Today" as Co-Anchor

Ann Curry replacement, Savannah Guthrie, made her official debut on the 'Today' show alongside Matt Lauer as co-host of the NBC show.

Sitting in Ann Curry's former seat, the show began with recognition of her new role with Lauer asking her about her thoughts on being the front-woman of 'Today'.

"It's an honor to be here," Guthrie said to which Lauer replied, "We're happiest because you bring a great attitude and what we like to call a weird sense of humor."

On her first day, Guthrie was seen interviewing Robert Gibbs, former White House press secretary but now President Obama's adviser.

Guthrie assumes the role in a crucial time since the show's ratings have suffered recent slumps.

After being the ratings leader through 852 weeks (since 1996), ABC's 'Good Morning America' surpassed the 'Today' show in four occasions during the first half of 2012 according to Nielsen.

NBC is hoping Guthrie will help  'Today' not only regain dominance in the ratings, but as well bring new chemistry with co-anchor Matt Lauer since according to Us Weekly, Matt Lauer was "100 percent behind Ann leaving" and "both were not talking to each other a few weeks before Ann was ousted."

After Ann Curry left the 'Today' show, a flood of comments criticizing NBC's decision to replace the former co-anchor with Savannah Guthrie was posted on the Latinos Post website.

While most of the comments expressed dissatisfaction with the ousting of Curry, several more were upset with the way the show handled Curry's last day on set.

Not only so, over the majority of the comments posted on the site stated that they would discontinue watching the 'Today' show and would switch to something else.

Apparently Ann Curry had a very loyal fan base that enjoyed not only watching her but relating to her as she filled in for the various segments.

After Curry left the show, Nielsen data found that the TV ratings for the 'Today' show had immediately dropped by 280,000 people the following day, the day Savannah Guthrie made her 'Today' debut.

Although the data didn't suggest what may have caused the drop, the cause might be related to people displeased with the new changes.

According to a poll conducted by the Latinos Post, 88 percent of 5,571 voters thought that NBC had made a mistake replacing Ann Curry.

Not only so, a second poll found that out of 1,471 voters, 103 thought the new anchor, Savannah Guthrie, would help with the ratings against 649 who thought she would hurt them. 719 believed Guthrie would neither hurt or help the ratings.

To view the updated and entire poll, click here.

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