If you feel like your favorite morning news or talk show is often trying to sell you something, you're right.
Shopping segments within the content of NBC's “Today” show, ABC's “Good Morning America” and “CBS Mornings” have grown in recent years. Using QR codes on the screen, viewers are taken directly to dedicated e-commerce sites where they can place their orders, and the program earns 20% or more of the revenue generated.
Segments typically feature a contributor or expert presenting home goods, fashion, or personal care products, along with the host viewers know and trust. While hosts typically don't make the introduction, their presence provides a seal of approval that helps drive a purchase.
The segments are also a staple of talk shows and syndicated programs such as “The View,” “The Jennifer Hudson Show,” “Entertainment Tonight” and “Inside Edition” and have spread to local television stations. Ownership groups have signed deals with companies that link them to brands seeking exposure that goes far beyond what they get from a 30-second commercial.
“This is the savior for media, if they really focus on it,” said Brian Meehan, co-founder of Knocking, a Connecticut-based company that specializes in integrating e-commerce into television and digital content.
This may seem a little hyperbolic, but there's no doubt that television outlets are looking for help as they navigate the disrupted media industry.
Streaming has moved viewers away from traditional television, which has reduced advertising revenue. Since 2022, advertising spending on broadcast and cable television has fallen 23%, to $51 billion in 2025. Consumers who ignore or cancel their cable subscriptions are cutting into the fees stations receive from pay TV providers.
As a result, both networks and television stations have had to make significant cuts to their news operations to maintain profit margins. The daytime syndication business has also declined dramatically, with NBCUniversal exiting the market and canceling “Access Hollywood” and “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”
The networks and stations don't reveal how much they make from the shopping segments, which typically last four minutes, but insiders say it's in the eight-figure range.
Bill Hague, executive vice president of media research firm Magid, said more and more television stations are turning to these segments to help fill the extra hours of local news they program instead of syndicated talk shows.
“Why invest in distribution when you can have the same audience and more revenue tied to it?” Hague said, adding that the company's research shows that consumers do not believe the practice diminishes the quality of a newscast.
Jeff Rossen, former NBC News consumer reporter, recently hosted online shopping deals for local Tegna television stations. The products he demonstrated sold quickly, probably helped by the credibility and trust he has gained as a journalist.
That authority is important to viewers. NBC says its research shows that 94% of “Today” viewers trust product recommendations made on the show.
Morning shows, with their mix of hard news, entertainment segments and lighter fare, have always had more freedom in what they present. But the current dire circumstances of the television business explain why there is little resistance.
“If helping me buy a better blender also helps pay an investigative journalist, I don't care,” said Andrew Heyward, a former president of CBS News who has consulted for television station groups.
Heyward said consumers have become accustomed to editorial content being a gateway to online shopping. The New York Times gets a cut of sales linked to its product review site Wirecutter.
Book reviews in the Los Angeles Times are linked to Bookshop.org and the newspaper receives a commission from any sales.
Amazon and other web platforms have made e-commerce account for 21.8% of all US retail purchases, according to the Commerce Department.
Direct selling in traditional media goes back decades. In 1978, a Clearwater, Florida, radio station accepted 112 electric can openers from an advertiser who couldn't afford to pay for commercial time. Station owner Bud Paxson had an announcer auction off the inventory over the air and it quickly sold out, spawning a regular show called “Suncoast Bargaineers.”
In 1982, Paxson moved the concept to a local Tampa cable outlet, called it the Home Shopping Channel, and after a few years took it national as the Home Shopping Network. HSN soon had celebrities presenting their own product lines, a technique now occasionally used on morning shows.
Candi Carter, whose Cistus Media handles e-commerce for Tegna, said viewers have long been accustomed to seeing products promoted within programming content, dating back to the days of Oprah Winfrey's “favorite things” segments.
“Brands do it for visibility,” Carter added. “They don't have to pay a product integration fee and they get revenue from sales.”
Television networks experimented with selling directly to viewers over the years. NBC even put its name on ShopNBC, a cable channel it co-owned in the 1990s. But the concept wasn't mastered until NBC's “Today” introduced “Steals and Deals” in 2010 as an occasional segment that grew over time.
The program now has 30 contributors who feature products in about 350 shopping segments each year. They are available on digital, social, newsletter and mobile platforms after their broadcast on “Today”.
ABC's “Good Morning America” started its own version in 2011, cheekily calling it “Deals and Steals.” The network now has daily segments on both “GMA” and the afternoon hours “GMA 3” and “The View.” Network contributor Tory Johnson has handled “Deals and Steals” since its launch and has long been one of the most familiar faces on “GMA.” Over the years, other collaborators have been added, such as the former editor of the fashion magazine Lori Bergamotto.
Meehan recalls that the biggest obstacle to launching the segments on ABC was the language that explained the deal to viewers, making it clear that the network would benefit.
“It came down to the attorneys simply saying, 'ABC may receive promotional or financial consideration,'” he said. “Going through that process took a long time.”
CBS News, historically wary of any efforts that could tarnish its legacy as a journalism organization, was the last of the traditional networks to enter e-commerce in 2022 after COVID-19 lockdowns depressed advertising revenue. The division was also under pressure to improve its financial performance as Shari Redstone, then president of parent Paramount, intended to improve the company's balance sheet ahead of a sale.
“CBS Deals” segments, as they are called, appear several times a week on “CBS Mornings” and “CBS Saturday Morning” and have become key revenue drivers for the struggling news division. Any resistance from producers or on-air talent diminishes once they learn how much money e-commerce generates, according to a division veteran who is not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
As ABC and NBC negotiate their e-commerce deals internally and through some of their collaborators, CBS turned to Knocking to develop its segments. The company makes deals with product vendors seeking exposure on the show, provides the on-air talent that pitches with network hosts and builds the websites that handle the transactions.
While on-air network journalists appear in the segments, they are not asked to make the sales. When CBS News signed on with Knocking, the division insisted that the talent and producers involved be able to test the products before putting them on the air. When they can react with enthusiasm, it helps a lot.
“When 'CBS Mornings' co-host Nate Burleson puts on a massager and says, 'Oh, wow, this feels like real human hands,' none of that is written,” Meehan said.
Still, the programs are putting their credibility at stake by selling the products. There is little room for error or customer dissatisfaction, as unhappy viewers will tune out.
Meehan said Knocking does everything it can to mitigate that possibility by accepting returns up to six months after purchase.
“A bad experience will be detrimental to both the product or service presented and the broadcaster,” Heyward said. “All parties have a strong interest in honesty and a good user experience.”
