While Day to Day was divided into segments similar in length to those on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, there were at least two major differences: the C segment was divided into two sections; and the program had a shorter total running time—one hour compared to two for the larger newsmagazines.
Day to Day began with a sixty-second billboard, wherein Alex Chadwick and Madeleine Brand talk about what will be coming up on the show. The billboard is followed by the standard NPR newscast from one minute past to six minutes past the hour. Some stations utilized the last 2.5 minutes of the newscast to deliver local midday news reports. A thirty-second music bed follows, and then Segment A begins.
Segment A (duration 12:29) contained the top story of the day, and usually synopses of longer-term issues viewed through the lens of current events. Segment topics ranged from the American judicial system to economics to geopolitics to conversations with notable newsmakers, and more. Segment A closed at nineteen minutes past the hour and leads into a two-minute station break.
At twenty-one after, Segment B (duration 7:49) began. Segment B composed the remainder of the first half-hour, and as such continued coverage on important news events of the day, or segued into lighter culturally or socially relevant stories. Segment B closes at 28:50 past the hour, and goes into a local break until the bottom of the hour.
At half past the hour, Day to Day returned with Segment C1 (duration 5:14), usually reserved for updates on stories presented in the first half-hour, or different angles on major news stories. Segment C2 (duration 3:59) was home to the Marketplace report, a discussion about an item of business news with a reporter from Marketplace, capped with a short preview of that evening's program. C2 ended at 39:30 after the hour.
Following another thirty-second music break, Day to Day entered Segment D (duration 8:59). There was little specificity to the content of Segment D; stories ranged from international and domestic issues to long-term reports on a variety of topics. Segment D ran from forty minutes to forty-nine minutes past the hour, and another two-minute station break ensued.
Segment E (duration 8:20) began at fifty-one minutes past the hour. For the show's first three years, it was divided into Segments E1 and E2, which lasted roughly three and a half minutes each. On February 20, 2007, Day to Day combined the two E segments into one long one. Segment E was usually devoted to commentary and light features, including "The Unger Report", a satirical take on news and current events. Time permitting, Segment E was followed up by the credits, and Day to Day came to a close.
