Kathie Lee Gifford will soon be back on TV's early shift.

The former co-star of the syndicated "Live" talk show will join NBC's "Today" Monday. She will be teamed with Hoda Kotb (pronounced HO-dah COT-bee), a current anchor of the program's 7-month-old fourth hour, which airs live at 10 a.m. in most of the country but airs on Pittsburgh's WPXI at 2 p.m. weekdays.

The announcement was made during yesterday's broadcast, with Gifford seated alongside the program's established stars, including Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, co-hosts of the first two hours.

Gifford, 54, who left Regis Philbin and "Live" in 2000, joked that the timing of her TV return "couldn't be worse" in certain ways: "I'm eight years older, 10 pounds heavier, a half-inch shorter, and just in time for HD television."

Long married to former NFL star and sports announcer Frank Gifford, she joked, "It's going to be good to be working. I'm really tired of staying home and watching Frank's old highlight films."

Ann Curry will continue her role as news anchor of the 7-9 a.m. hours of "Today," as well as co-host, with Al Roker, of the 9 a.m. hour. Natalie Morales will join Curry and Roker as a third co-host at 9 a.m. and will serve as the show's national correspondent, the network said.

(Frazier Moore, Associated Press)

The bitter weekend divorce between two actors unions in upcoming contract talks with Hollywood producers mirrors a scene from a daytime soap opera -- and casts stars from the genre in pivotal roles.

The Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have long sniped at each other over who better represents some 44,000 actors who are members of both groups.

The last straw, according to AFTRA president Roberta Reardon, was SAG's "relentless campaign of disinformation and disparagement" aimed at enticing actors in the soap drama "The Bold and the Beautiful" to abandon the federation.

The inflamed rhetoric from both unions had the tenor of a steamy romance torn apart by a deceitful affair.

Reardon said in a statement Saturday that AFTRA, which mostly represents broadcast performers, was finished "wasting time assessing whether our partner is being honest with us."

Guild president Alan Rosenberg responded Sunday that his organization, a larger union that represents film and prime-time TV talent, had "no desire" to woo daytime soap stars away from the federation when he and other executives were invited by "Bold" actors Susan Flannery and John McCook to a Los Angeles lunch meeting a month ago.

He called the suggestion that SAG was trying to poach the actors a "calculated" and "cynical" excuse by AFTRA to hasten the end of their partnership.

"They wanted to be out of this relationship for a long time," he said.

Also on Sunday, SAG's board of directors unanimously approved a bargaining proposal package to be used by negotiators in upcoming talks with producers. No specifics of the contract proposals were revealed.

The negotiations with major studios and TV networks over working conditions on theatrical film productions and prime-time television series are at the heart of the tiff between the two groups. The current three-year contract expires June 30.

For 27 years, the guild, representing 120,000 members, and the federation, representing 70,000, had negotiated the contract together.

But the recent 100-day writers' strike, which cost the Los Angeles-area economy an estimated $2.5 billion, injected new urgency into reaching a contract agreement, as the industry played catch-up to reconnect with deprived audiences.

AFTRA and the producers, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, have both stressed that they were seeking to reach a deal quickly and avoid another strike.

But SAG, despite entreaties from A-listers such as George Clooney and Meryl Streep to hurry up, appeared to be dragging its feet.

Observers said such conflicts were common in a town with large egos and high stakes.

"There's a long history between rival unions in the entertainment industry" going back to Ronald Reagan's days as SAG president in the 1940s and '50s, said Daniel Mitchell, a professor of management and public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles. "It's maybe not surprising that you get these different segments that don't see eye to eye."

The breakup hurts the actors, who will now begin negotiations with CBS, Fox, NBC Universal and other producers with a divided front, Rosenberg said.

It may also force SAG to move up its negotiations from a planned mid-April start as it seeks to prevent AFTRA from negotiating a weaker deal. AFTRA said on Sunday it was already informally discussing with producers a timeline for negotiations.

JoBeth Williams, who played the mother in "Poltergeist" and now portrays Gail on the crime thriller "Dexter," blamed AFTRA for weakening actors' bargaining positions. "I'm upset that the leadership of AFTRA has taken a step that may undermine the ability of all actors to get the best possible contracts," she said.

Rosenberg said AFTRA's kiss-off may force SAG to enter talks sooner than expected. "The only people they've made happy are the [producers]," he said.

(Ryan Nakashima, Associated Press)

Stations owned and operated by CBS have been hit with budget cuts, and Pittsburgh's KDKA-TV and WPCW-TV are no exceptions.

About 10 positions have been eliminated, including some unfilled positions.

The anchor/reporter position vacated by John Cater probably will not be filled. The contract for weekend anchor Don Cannon, who has been off the air since last fall because of assorted medical issues, is up this summer, and it seems unlikely that he will return.

"We have a policy that we won't comment on personnel decisions," said KDKA general manager Chris Pike about the layoffs, which seem to be more of an economic decision. Later he added, "I can confirm that KDKA-TV and WPCW-TV experienced some reductions in staffing over the past week. While each reduction is individually difficult, it will not impact our ability to provide the quality and quantity of programming our viewers have come to expect from these stations."

It appears no one currently on the air at KDKA will be let go, but some behind-the-scenes personnel will be forced out.

CBS-owned stations in Denver, Philadelphia, Sacramento and Dallas also saw job cuts in the past week.

(Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor)

Channel 4 has a hired a new reporter, Amber Nicotra, formerly of WKBN in Youngstown, where she was the station's morning anchor. She previously worked as an anchor/reporter at WTRF in Wheeling and as an assignment editor at WPXI.

Nicotra, a graduate of Duquesne University and North Catholic High School, will become one of WTAE's morning news reporters, replacing Marcie Cipriani, who will report during the day.

(R.O.)