Tampa Bay Times TV critic Eric Deggans writes about NBC’s “Today,” and highlights four problems that he argues are facing the program. Among them: Matt Lauer has become the face of the show, even at the expense of his colleagues

When Curry was forced off the show amid a tearful goodbye, I cautioned that NBC couldn’t let new female co-anchor Savannah Guthrie become the hated replacement the way Deborah Norville was back when Jane Pauley left back in the late ’80s.

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“Good Morning America” anchors Sam Champion, Lara Spencer, and Josh Elliott hosted a gallery opening in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan last night showing the works of Champion’s fiance Rubem Robierb.

Among the guests: “Live” co-host and former New York Giant Michael Strahan, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts, ABC News SVPs James Goldston and Barbara Fedida and “GMA” Senior EP Tom Cibrowski and super agent Olivia Metzger.

Cibrowski told us he called it an early night on Tuesday. “Once I saw the 10 O’clock states come in, I kind of knew what to expect,” Cibrowski tells TVNewser. “And I had to be up in a few hours to get ["GMA"] on.”

Back at Times Square Studios, the lights had not yet gone out. Elliott told us he felt slightly guilty about the power outage which happened just before 11pmET. Stationed outside the studio in a 30 degree chill, the electricity used to light and heat his live shots may have caused the outage inside. “It’s completely dark,” recounted Elliott as he looked up to the second floor of the studio. “And I hear in my ear, ‘We’ve lost the lights, we need you to stretch.’” ABC elections EP Marc Burstein kept the network on the air by utilizing Elliot, reporters in the field and shuffling Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos in another part of the studio until the lights came back.

Back to last night’s show, Champion couldn’t have been more proud of Robierb, while facing the prospect that many of the works would soon have new homes. “I hope no one buys that one,” said Champion of the $10,000 lithograph at the front of the gallery. “That one’s been in the living room.”

A portion of the proceeds from last night’s sales from The Bullet-Fly Effect will be donated to the American Red Cross.

As it did for the 2008 election, ABC News is transforming part of Times Square into its election night headquarters.

The coverage will originate from inside “Good Morning America’”s Times Square studio, but the network will also be taking over a handful of facades at “The Crossroads Of The World.” ABC’s “Super Sign,” the NASDAQ facade and the Reuters sign will all feature ABC coverage and real-time election results.

“GMA” newsreader Josh Elliott will also be stationed at Military Island in the middle of Times Square, where he will talk to the crowd to get real-time reaction.

NBC News, as it usually does, is transforming Rockefeller Plaza into “Democracy Plaza” for election night.

“Good Morning America” weatherman Sam Champion is planning to tie the knot with his partner Rubem Robierb later this year. The pending nuptials will be reported in a Sunday New York Times column (online now) about last weekend’s wedding of MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts and Patrick Abner.

Among the 170 or so guests at the reception was Sam Champion, the weather anchor at ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He took a turn on the dance floor with his partner, the photographer Rubem Robierb. “We’re getting married New Year’s Eve in Miami,” Mr. Champion said in the spirit of the moment. Mr. Robierb corrected him: “We’ll do it here officially, and then have a party in Miami.”

On Twitter this afternoon Champion wrote, “I’ve never been happier to share a bit of personal news!!” Champion and Brazilian-born Robierb split time between New York and Miami. New York is one of six states and the District of Columbia to have legalized same-sex marriage.

> More: The well-wishes are coming in on Twitter:

Diane Sawyer: and everybody here celebrating Sam’s happiness RT:@SamChampion never been happier to share a bit of personal news!

Ben Sherwood: Congratulations @SamChampion & Rubem Robeirb — thrilled for both of you — wishing the very best.

Bianna Golodryga: Congratulations Sam!!

Josh Elliott: Congrats, to the best friend and colleague imaginable…

George Stephanopoulos: So happy for you @SamChampion – A big family hug from me, @AliEWentworth and the girls!

It’s been five months since “Good Morning America” overtook “Today” as the #1 morning show — its first weekly win in more than 16 years. In the first few months, it was mostly back and forth between the shows, but for the week of Sept. 10 — for the third week in a row — “GMA” comes out on top in both Total Viewers and the A25-54 demo. “GMA” has won 9 of the last 11 weeks in Total Viewers.

“Today” lost more than a million viewers — 1/5 of their audience — compared to the same week last year. Vs. last year “GMA” added 400,000 viewers (+8%) and is also up +2% in A25-54 viewers. “Today” is down -21% in Total Viewers and down -31% in younger viewers. “CBS This Morning” is also down (-5%/-12%).

The averages for the week of September 10:

• Total Viewers: ABC: 4.958M / NBC: 4.306M / CBS: 2.360M

• A25-54 viewers: ABC: 1.831M / NBC: 1.732M / CBS: 840K

With the Emmy awards on ABC this year, ABC News anchors Josh Elliott and Lara Spencer, along with Clinton Kelly of “The Chew” and “The Bachelor’s” Chris Harrison will host ABC’s pre-Emmy Red Carpet special. The special airs live at 7pmET/4pmPT Sunday night, followed by the Emmy Awards hosted this year by Jimmy Kimmel.

On the first official day of the Republican National Convention, the broadcast and cable networks kicked things off with an address from President Obama.

The broadcasters aired special reports around 10:08 AM ET to present President Obama’s statements on the impending landfall of Tropical Storm (and likely soon to be Hurricane) Isaac.

NBC News had Matt Lauer and David Gregory anchoring in Tampa, while ABC had Robin Roberts and Josh Elliott behind the desk. CBS News coverage was led by Jim Axelrod.

The cable networks broke in at 10:09, as the President began his remarks, warning residents in Isaac’s path to listen to local officials, and evacuate if necessary.

Beyond the ratings, here’s one more indicator of the “Today” show losing out to “Good Morning America.”

Page Six reports, “Today” show superfan Linny Boyette has switched allegiances. With “Today” in London, Boyette has been spotted across town at “GMA.”

“He has been there every morning this week,” one ABC insider told us, adding, “we’ve seen him both on- and off-camera.” Boyette even posed for a pic with Lara Spencer, Josh Elliott, Sam Champion and Amy Robach. Ripples were mostly made on a Facebook fan page devoted to Boyette. But it remains to be seen where he’ll wind up post-Olympics.

In 2010, TodayShow.com produced a story on Linny who takes the subway down from the Bronx every morning to watch the show from the plaza. Al Roker calls him “a good luck charm. When we don’t see him, we feel a little off.”

In the piece, Linny says Ann Curry was his favorite. “Everyone loves her and Meredith is #2,” Linny adds.

“NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams” began broadcasting from London mid-week last week, and it appears the show is getting an Olympics boost. “Nightly” is up +10% in Total Viewers and up +14% in younger viewers vs. the week prior and up vs. the same week last year (+6% in both measurements).

Compared to the week leading up to the Beijing games four years ago, “Nightly” improved +10% in total Viewers and +1% in younger viewers.

And, once again, the “CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley” is showing the most improvement: +9% in Total Viewers and +8% in A25-54 viewers compared to the same week last year.

“World News with Diane Sawyer,” with substitute host Josh Elliott on Thursday and Friday, was down year-over-year.

“Nightly” also wins the July sweep (numbers after the jump) with a nearly +600,000 viewer lead on “World News” and a 2 million lead on “Evening News.”

• Numbers for the week of July 23, 2012:

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Robin Roberts left “Good Morning America” this morning just as the second hour began, announcing, “I’m not feeling too well.” She’ll be taking off the rest of this week and the next two weeks, part of which was a planned vacation, as she continues grueling chemotherapy procedures ahead of a bone marrow transplant expected in October.

In April, Roberts was diagnosed with MDS, a blood disorder that can occur in patients treated for other cancers. Roberts beat breast cancer in 2007.

Roberts made the announcement at 8:08: “A full disclosure here. I’m not feeling too well. I’m going to leave and let you do the rest of the program on your own. I’m going to take a little time off to get some vaca!”

George Stephanopoulos is off this week, so Josh Elliott has been co-anchoring while Amy Robach has been news reader. It was announced at TCA last week that Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters, Katie Couric and Kelly Ripa would be among Roberts’ fill-ins when she goes on medial leave later this summer.