1. news

Ousted Today anchor Ann Curry (top left) joins
gloating ABC newscasters (clockwise from top right)
George Stephanopoulos, Lara Spencer and Robin
Roberts in regarding Matt Lauer as TV enemy No. 1.
The newsman was once the
golden boy of morning TV. But as his
show’s ratings slip and his image takes a beating,
some insiders say Matt Lauer is a diva who
needs to leave Today tomorrow.
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By Dana Schuster
Previous page, Clockwise from top: Shutterstock; AMBER De VOS/PatrickMcMullan.com; Ray Tamarra/Getty Images; Ida Mae Astute/ABC/AP; Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images; Joe Stevens/Retna (matt). This page: Kevini Mazur/wireimage
T
he Today show wishes
it were yesterday.
One year ago, the
NBC darling was the
top-rated morning
news program in
America, with $500 million in annual
advertising revenue and 5.37 million viewers. Co-anchor Matt Lauer had enough
star wattage to light the Rockefeller
Center Christmas tree.
Flash forward to, well, today, and the
tables have turned.
Having shed one-fifth of its viewership,
the show now trails its ABC archrival,
Good Morning America. After the embarrassing ouster of co-host Ann Curry and
the awkward debut of co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, Today has lost momentum—
and goodwill. And for the first time since
he became the show’s golden-boy anchor,
insiders are suddenly asking the unthinkable: Is it time for the $25-million-a-year
Matt Lauer to go?
“Right now, [NBC] is wondering, ‘Oh
my gosh, what are we paying for? Is this
guy damaged goods?’ ” one of Lauer’s
former Today colleagues tells Page Six
Magazine. “This is probably his worst
nightmare. He’s freaking out. I think he’s
calling on higher management to fix this.”
NBC bigs are already searching for
ways to repair the anchor’s image. “The
whole [Hurricane] Sandy telethon for
victims became a huge thing,” the former
colleague says about Today’s initiative to
raise money. “Everyone was saying, ‘This
is Matt’s idea, Matt’s idea,’ just to give
him some good standing with the public.”
But the newsman, who negotiated his
mind-blowing four-day-a-week contract
one week before GMA overtook Today in
the ratings for the first time in 16 years,
can’t escape claims that he’s overpaid—
and has overstayed his welcome.
“When you insist on being the single
highest-paid person in network news, you
just put a giant bull’s-eye on yourself,”
says a top-ranking “Big Three” network
executive, who asked not to be identified.
Lauer’s name didn’t always carry such
weight—or such a heavy price tag.
The 54-year-old golf enthusiast grew
up in Westchester, N.Y., with his older
sister and parents: Jay, a bicycle company
vice president, and Marilyn, a stay-at-
a year, walks onto the set with a pile of
home mom. They divorced when Lauer
ties he doesn’t wear anymore, and the
was 8. As a teen, he moved into a Greencrew members gobble them up,” says Don
wich, Conn., garden apartment with
Nash, a 23-year Today show vet who was
his mother and stepfather so he could
recently promoted to executive producer.
attend Greenwich High School. ThereHe’s also “quick and witty,” says former
after, Lauer enrolled at Ohio University,
co-anchor Katie Couric.
dropping out a handful of credits shy of
A few years ago, when Couric was
graduating to take a news producer gig in
staying at the Breakers resort in Palm
West Virginia. Twelve months later,
Beach, Fla., Lauer had a surprise
he was on-air.
waiting.
Over the next few
“When I got into
years, Lauer bounced
my room, everywhere
around, landing local
I looked, there was
news jobs in New
an 8-by-10 glossy of
York, Boston and PhilMatt,” Couric tells
adelphia. But nothing
Page Six Magazine.
lasted, including his
“He had someone put
first marriage to televione under my pillow
sion producer Nancy
with things like, ‘Hi,
Alspaugh, whom he
look who you’re
divorced in 1989, after
sleeping with tonight’
seven years. In 1990,
written on it. He had
down on his luck,
While Lauer’s
someone put one in
Lauer relinquished
“freaking out,” new
the minibar that said,
his TV dreams, moved
co-anchor Savannah
‘Get out of here.’ The
to North Salem, N.Y.,
Guthrie is nursing
piéce de resistance
and applied for a treemigraines.
was when I lifted up
trimming job.
the toilet seat and
To his surprise, he
there he was. They had taped a photo of
got a call from Bill Bolster, then general
him under the toilet, and it said, ‘Yep, here
manager at WNBC. Lauer had been on
I am, too.’ ”
Bolster’s mind ever since the TV exec
But now that his ratings are in the
caught Lauer starring in a 1-800-Mattress
commercial as part of his local co-hosting toilet, Lauer’s no longer kidding around.
After GMA surpassed Today in viewers
duties in New York.
in April, Curry was blamed and kicked to
“I remember being stuck on how enthe curb. “Matt never tried with [Curry],”
gaging he was,” Bolster says.
In 1992, he offered Lauer a job at NYC’s his former colleague says. “He made her
extremely nervous, which made her perNBC flagship, co-anchoring a local early
formance even weaker...If Matt doesn’t
morning news show, Today in New York,
want you around, he’ll make you feel like
alongside Jane Hanson. Lauer was more
there’s nowhere less you want to be.”
than happy to ditch his shears for suits.
Curry’s perfunctory sendoff in June
Two years later, Jeff Zucker, executive
made headlines. “I’m sorry I couldn’t
producer of the national Today show,
carry the ball over the finish line, but man,
added Lauer to the news desk on that
I did try,” Curry said as she cried during
program. In 1997, Lauer replaced Bryant
the five-minute farewell Today allotted
Gumbel as Katie Couric’s co-anchor, a
her. (Her predecessor, Meredith Vieira,
throne he’s occupied as the show cycled
received a goodbye that clocked in at
through four female co-anchors.
two hours in June 2011.) Curry avoided
Part of Lauer’s appeal is his ability to
eye contact with Lauer, who remained
seamlessly transition from serious news
stone-faced, his arm draped over the
to fluffy features. He’s also said to be
couch in a manner more territorial than
generous, ringing a staffer’s sick mother
in the hospital or offering high-end hand- sympathetic.
Right after, Lauer’s “Q score,” which
me-downs to the team.
measures celebrity familiarity and likabil“He’s the kind of guy that, a few times
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Evan agostini/ap (katie); kristina bumphrey/startraksphoto (meredith); getty images (tiara)
ing at his laptop and he’s crying. And I’m
quit. Producers are resigning after workity, dropped by 25 percent. The pleasant
like, ‘What the heck?’ He’s watching The
ing there for so many years.”
and uncontroversial Savannah Guthrie
Notebook, and the tears are just flowing.
The GMA team, meanwhile, is reveling
was promoted as Lauer’s new co-captain,
in its coronation as the congenial kings of And I’m like, ‘Wow. I wasn’t expecting
but the Today ship continued to sink. In
that.’ ” (He adds that reports of Lauer’s
morning news. When Robin Roberts had
July, Guthrie took to wearing sunglasses
diva behavior are “just a crock.”)
to undergo a boneoff the air to alleviate
Prior to Currygate, Lauer’s biggest pubmarrow transplant
her stress migraines,
lic relations problem was a personal one.
in September, her
Page Six reported.
Amid rumors of his philandering, which
co-anchors rallied
This fall, desperate
Lauer denies, he separated from his secaround her, all donto revive the flagging
ond wife, Dutch model Annette Roque,
ning her trademark
show and his image,
while she was pregnant with their third
frog slippers as a
Lauer took charge.
child in 2006. Roque filed for divorce, but
show of support.
“Matt’s telling the
Lauer, meanwhile, the couple has since reunited, and she
staff they don’t work
now lives full-time at the couple’s $15 milfails to project
hard enough, which
lion Water Mill, N.Y., mansion with their
the same sense of
is hard to take from a
three kids, while Lauer holes up at their
warmth even off the
guy working four days
air, insiders say. Out- Park Avenue co-op during the work week.
a week, making milTV queen Katie
While fans were forgiving of Lauer’s
side the Today studio
lions,” an insider told
Couric
insists Lauer
alleged indiscretions behind closed
at 30 Rock, “he’ll go
Page Six. NBC sources
is “witty,” but insiders
doors, his on-air antics have been harder
out and shake hands
reportedly dubbed him
say he “can’t relate” to
to stomach.
with people in the
an “anchor animal”
ordinary Americans.
“Some [rumors] may be true, some
Plaza, but then he
who micromanmay not be, but every time he comes on
runs right in as soon
ages staff and bans colthe air...those things are hovering and oras he can get away,” says the former colleagues from uttering the words “Good
biting around him,” says Robert Thompleague. “All of the content in the show is
Morning America.”
son, a professor of television and popular
very Americana. And we would someIn response to that item, Lauer told
culture at Syracuse University.
times laugh because [Matt] wouldn’t
Page Six: “Please print this story—it’s the
Lauer, no doubt, would like those
know what an RV is.”
most interesting and dangerous I’ve ever
rumors put to bed.
In fact, he’s been known to charter a
sounded!” (He declined to be interviewed
“We don’t like being number two,”
helicopter from his Hamptons home to
for this article.)
get to Rock Center by 4:46 a.m. His former Nash admits. “It’s not a good fit for us.”
But the reports of upheaval were true.
It’s an especially poor fit for the Zegnacolleague concludes: “Matt can’t relate.”
Jim Bell, Today’s former executive prowearing Lauer, who
And yet, Today’s anducer, accepted responsibility for axing
likes his suits snug,
Curry, and fell on his sword in November, chors past and present
custom-made and
were eager to defend
moving to the sports division. Alexandra
top-of-the-line.
Lauer for this article,
Wallace, a senior vice president of NBC
So far, Today’s ad
describing him as a
News, has since swooped in to run the
revenue has held
secretly emotional guy
show in a new role overseeing Nash—
steady, and in recent
who cares deeply about
making her the first woman to lead Today
weeks the program
his friends. Meredith
in its 60-year history. Last month, Radar
has started closing
Vieira, whose husband,
Online reported that Lauer’s screen time
in on GMA. Despite
Richard, suffers from
will be cut back in favor of the more liksome media suggesmultiple sclerosis, says,
able Willie Geist, who recently joined the
tions that Lauer take
“Sometimes Richard
team for its 9 o’clock hour. (“Not true at
a pay cut, numerous
takes a little longer
all,” says Today publicist Megan Kopf.)
Lauer had great
sources say such
to get from point A to
Still, the sudden tumult is unusual.
chemistry with the
a move would be
“This was a place that used to...[do] these point B, and it’s always
beloved Meredith
madness, as it would
Matt Lauer who comes
things very smoothly,” says the Big Three
Vieira, but “he never
signify Today’s
to walk with us. I don’t
exec. “Every transition was perfect, and
tried” with Curry.
demise.
even think he knows
they can’t shoot straight anymore.”
“He’s a fighter,”
he’s doing it.”
“It’s really a terrible climate,” adds
says Nash. “He understands how things
A particularly private anecdote comes
Lauer’s former colleague. “Everybody’s
play out. And he wants to win.”
on edge. I don’t know who trusts anybody from Today co-host Al Roker: “One day
For the time being, NBC seems willing
we were traveling, and I was sitting across
because there are so many leaks. They
from [Matt] and I look over and he’s look- to let him try.
have no leader. People are threatening to