Executive producer Tom Mazzarelli speaks with PEOPLE about the months of planning and preparations that go into the biggest show of the year

NEED TO KNOW

• Planning for Today‘s Halloween extravaganza begins in the spring with serious preparations starting by the end of summer
• Anchors help choose their costumes and begin rehearsing songs, dances and sketches around Labor Day
• Producers learned from the widely mocked Peanuts-themed year and are avoiding a repeat

It’s been called the Today show’s version of prom, and it’s arguably the NBC morning program’s most iconic broadcast of the year. But what exactly goes into pulling off its annual Halloween extravaganza?

As the Today team prepares to debut a whole new set of costumes, sketches and presumably dance numbers on Friday, Oct. 30, PEOPLE spoke exclusively with executive producer Tom Mazzarelli about the months of planning, elaborate production work and occasional costume negotiations that go into making the annual celebration a reality.

While the show has always celebrated Halloween in some fashion, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the anchors really began going all out, dressing in themed outfits, embodying legendary performers and recreating memorable roles.

Last year’s road trip-themed celebration featured fan favorites like Sheinelle Jones as Beyoncé, Savannah Guthrie as Miranda Priestly, Jenna Bush Hager as Anna Wintour, Craig Melvin as Prince. But as Mazzarelli reveals, bringing those transformations to life takes far more than a trip to the costume department.

From the surprising amount of input the anchors have in choosing their looks to the one Halloween theme the team has vowed never to repeat, Mazzarelli takes PEOPLE behind the scenes of one of morning television’s biggest annual traditions.

PEOPLE: When did you start working to plan the Today Halloween costumes?
TOM MAZZARELLI: I’ve been with the show for about 15 years, so I’ve been through a few Halloweens, the good, the bad and the ugly.

When you first start planning, is it Nov. 1?
MAZZARELLI: That’s funny. It’s kind of our in-house joke that our first meeting for the next year’s Halloween starts on Nov. 1 where we all sit together where we go, ‘Okay, that was great, what are we going to do next year?’

And when do you really kind of kick into gear? Do you factor in any kind of news, pop culture news or anything like that? Or is it its own, unique theme that you go with?
MAZZARELLI: It’s become, over the course of the years, we try to do a unique theme. I would say we start in earnest in the spring where we begin the conversations with our production team and we begin the conversations with the anchors from spring into summer once we have a sense of where we want to head. Each year we raise the bar and it becomes a little bit bigger each year, which is a blessing and a curse, so what we like to do is as we develop the theme and we develop the costumes, we also try to figure out what they’re gonna do. It began as just a costume event and has now morphed into a whole production involving song and dance and all sorts of other things. So we have to factor that in as we do this. We have to factor in, can we get the rights to songs? We have to factor in video rights and all sorts of other things that add another element of production and a degree of difficulty as we go. 

So what comes first? Is it the theme or do you have a specific idea for a specific cast member on Today?
MAZZARELLI: We usually start with a larger theme and then try to figure out how to… sometimes the costumes come easy with the theme and other ones we find ourselves kind of shoehorning in and we have to reevaluate. At the end of the day, the anchors are all really game to do it. They enjoy it. They like the process. It’s a lot of work for them too, right? They have to do a song and do a dance. They have to do sketches. We did SNL one year and they had to do these mini-sketches. It’s a heavy lift for them, but they appreciate it and they appreciate the work that goes into it. They appreciate that we’re really the only ones that do this anymore in the morning TV landscape.

We really lean into it and it’s, by far, our biggest show of the year. We start with a theme and then we work one by one through the anchors. They have a big say in what they are. We’ll never put them in a position where they’re doing something that they don’t want to do. So we just get their buy-in early and then once we get their buy-in, that’s when we’re off to the races with costumes and music and rehearsals and all that other stuff. And that usually starts at the end of summer, right around Labor Day. 

How much input does the cast have? Does anyone ever come to you, for example, and say, ‘I’d like to be Beyoncé this year?’
MAZZARELLI: Absolutely. There’s a lot of back and forth conversations about it. I can tell you, I don’t remember ever coming up with all of the seven anchors and having them all immediately say yes to all of them. It’s a process and it’s a negotiation sometimes. A lot of them will have strong ideas about who they want to be and others will say, ‘Hey, you know what,  you tell us what you want.’ It sort of just depends on the theme of the year. Every year — I would say — there’s usually three or four which are immediate ‘oh, that’s a home run,’ and then the other three or so, we have to figure out how to work them in. 

Has there ever been a costume that you really wanted to do but weren’t able to execute?
MAZZARELLI: Not costumes, but there are certain music rights that we have run into issues with and so we just don’t go down that road. 

What would you say has been the most expensive or time-intensive look that you’ve done in your time running the Halloween show?
MAZZARELLI: If I remember correctly, the SNL one was a big one because there were so many mini-sketches we did and I remember that being an incredibly complex production. Every year Sheinelle [Jones] comes in and she knocks it out of the park because she’s such a talented dancer and she’s a really good performer. So those are usually, we give a little extra spice to because we know that she’s so good at it. It’s come to a point where a lot of people are anticipating what is Sheinelle going to be?

Yeah, I don’t think there’s a diva she hasn’t been! It was Beyoncé, Tina Turner, Diana Ross, Janet Jackson…
MAZZARELLI: And every year, it’s funny, you know Sheinelle, every year she gets nervous about it ahead of time and everyone around her says, ‘Sheinelle, you’re going to be fantastic. This is perfect for you.’ And every year she never disappoints. 

Do you have a favorite costume through the years or favorite theme?
MAZZARELLI: Not to keep going back to it, but I enjoyed the SNL one. Because that harkens back to, it was SNL‘s [50th] anniversary year so it sort of made sense on a lot of levels for us to do that and I just thought everyone was great and it was just kind of a fun one, everyone really enjoyed it. I think Jenna [Bush Hager] and Savannah [Guthrie] doing the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader one was fantastic. They actually went down to Dallas and we sent them to Dallas, they invited them down and they trained with them and they learned what it was like to be there and we shot behind the scenes with them. I always like when there’s that extra level of commitment that isn’t just throwing a costume on, that goes a long way. 

Are there any costumes or themes that you thought didn’t quite hit the mark?
MAZZARELLI: This is not a secret. We’ve talked about this openly on the show, but one year we did the Peanuts gang and it was just bizarre and strange and the minute we saw them, everyone kind of went, ‘Oh, this isn’t working.’ So to this day, it’s a running joke, ‘Whatever it is, it’ll be better than Peanuts year.’ 

So we’re steering clear of the Peanuts this year. 
MAZZARELLI: We learned our lesson. We were not like Charlie Brown. We did learn our lesson that year. 

Sheinelle recently admitted that she stole her Janet Jackson costume. I’m curious as to what your rules are surrounding the costumes on the set and how strictly they’re guarded. 
MAZZARELLI: I don’t ask any questions about the costumes. We’re just very happy that the anchors play along so they do what they’ve got to do, and I don’t ask any questions. 

I know that because you plan this so far in advance, you don’t typically adhere to current events. However, you are host to PEOPLE’s Sexiest Morning TV Host… 
MAZZARELLI: Yes, we are. 

Are there going to be any acknowledgements on Halloween to Craig [Melvin]‘s title?
MAZZARELLI: I think we will do our best to work sexy into his costume because it would be a mistake not to. 

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When exactly did this costume tradition start? Or has there always been some sort of Halloween tribute since the ‘50s? 
MAZZARELLI: There’s always been a tribute, but it really started this way in the ‘90s. Once we got the Plaza up, there’s a famous shot of Katie Couric flying across the Plaza as Peter Pan. Those ‘90s years, the cast then, really we owe a sort of debt of gratitude to them because they were game to do it, and that really started the tradition the way we honor it today.

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