If you like to start your day with 3 hours of mind-numbing, part news, part fluff then you’ll LOVE the latest move by the peacock network. Variety has just announced NBC’s decision to add a whopping 4th hour to their morning program.

“The Today Show,” which just celebrated its 55th year, plans to extend the franchise into the 10 am hour in order further dominate a time period now marked with syndicated cooking and talk shows such as the new “Rachael Ray Show,” “The Tyra Banks Show,” and the recently cancelled “The Meghan Mullally Show.”

The announcement comes as less than thrilling for host Matt Lauer: “I have mixed emotions about it, and I’ve made it fairly clear,” he told TV Week. “I understand the strategic reasons for wanting to do it. I still want them to think it’s special when 7 o’clock rolls around and that cold open runs and they say, ‘This is “Today” on NBC.’ ”

For many, “special” isn’t quite the word we think of when we think of “The Today Show.” (Unless you mean “special” in a Dawn Weiner kind of way. Then yes, “The Today Show” is very, very special indeed.)