Backpack, once a cub riding his mother, is TODAY's Fat Bear Week champion

Jenna Bush Hager's short Morning Boost about the winning bear's name drew far more than the farm, fashion and baseball segments posted the same day.

Channel: TODAYStory of October 1, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 70,808 views a day, 19 times a normal first day on this channel (3,684).

Backpack Wins Fat Bear Week: The Cute Story Behind His Name

Why would a brown bear in Alaska be called Backpack? According to TODAY's segment, park staff used to spot him as a cub, often clinging to his mother's back. The name stuck long after the cub stopped fitting there, and this year it belongs to a champion. After seven days of voting, Backpack won Fat Bear Week with more than 5,000 votes.

Jenna Bush Hager delivered the news as the show's Morning Boost, and it traveled. Thirteen hours after it went up, the clip had passed 51,000 views, close to twenty times what a new TODAY upload usually gathers in its first day. The sisters who saved their family farm with Icelandic skyr drew about a fifth of that, and the Gilmore Girls holiday tour and the men's fall fashion trends drew less still.

Fat Bear Week comes from Katmai National Park and Preserve, where brown bears spend the summer and early fall eating salmon before they hibernate. Viewers then vote on which bear looks the most ready for winter.

In the comments, the bear has company. Many viewers bring up a line from the panel, a host mentioning that she gets called "big back" at home, and they joke about the nicknames. Others note that he would not fit on his mother's back now. A few viewers say they wish the panel had let the anchor finish her piece without interrupting.

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The numbers

A short feel-good segment opened far above what a TODAY upload usually does on its first day.

the video's first day

usual first day here

3,684

this video

70,808

subscribers

5,110,000

total views

4,432,430,893

views per day

1,784,658

typical day: 1,276,225

the video

views

51,127

likes

267

comments

18

days online

1

compared with similar channels (subscribers)

The Graham Norton Show

5,730,000

Good Morning America

5,510,000

Late Night with Seth Meye…

5,310,000

TODAY

5,110,000

CBS Mornings

3,320,000

The Onion

3,280,000

As of October 1, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.

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