DANGEROUS BEAUTY Brown

There are worse things to be than a foxy young woman without kids—unless you want to score a co-anchor slot on NBC's Today Show. Despite widespread reports that Campbell Brown, co-host of the top-rated morning show's weekend edition, was on the very short list of potential successors for the CBS-bound Katie Couric, a source who was involved in NBC's decision making process tells Radar Brown never really had a shot, on account of her youth, looks, and, especially, her lack of kids.

According to the source, network executives considered Brown, who is also a regular correspondent on NBC Nightly News and a former White House correspondent, at least as qualified as any other contenders, and possibly the best-suited to the demands of the show's news-driven 7 a.m. hour. Nevertheless, NBC brass concluded that Today's core audience of stay-at-home moms would have trouble relating to a female host without rugrats of her own, banter about kids and spouses being as essential a part of Today's mix as cooking segments and Al Roker. (In fact, Brown wasn't even an honest woman until April, when she wed Fox News analyst Dan Senor.)

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