EP Jim Bell says Meredith Vieira‘s transition to Today has been “too smooth,” “too good.”

“The average Today audience of 5.8 million viewers during the first two months of Vieira’s tenure was about the same as it was during Couric’s tenure in 2005,” the AP’s David Bauder writes. At the same time, GMA has slipped: “Since Vieira took over, there have been 22 days where Today had a lead of more than a million viewers, compared to six times during the same period a year before.”

On the other hand, GMA pulled within 330,000 viewers of Today the week of Nov. 13, the story notes. But a week before, the gap was at 680,000, and a week after, the gap grew to 990,000…