Matt Lauer

Matthew Todd Lauer (born December 30, 1957) is an American former television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News.

He had previously dropped out of the same institution in the spring of 1979 to begin his television career, after he was hired as a producer of the noon newscast for WOWK-TV in Huntington, West Virginia.

By 1980, he had become an on-air reporter for the station's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.

He then started to move around the East Coast, hosting a number of daily information and talk programs.

He was a co-host of PM Magazine in several cities, beginning in Richmond (1980–1981), then Providence (1981–1984), and then New York City (1984–1986).

After the New York edition of PM Magazine was canceled by WNYW in 1986, Lauer and co-host Jill Rappaport worked on a new show for the station, Made in New York, which ran for fifteen weeks.

This was followed by Lauer gaining his first national television exposure, as he joined Robin Leach in co-hosting ABC's short-lived daytime series Fame, Fortune and Romance, a spin-off of the syndicated Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

Lauer then returned to local television, hosting programs in Philadelphia and Boston for a two-year period between 1987 and 1989, during which time he reported for ESPN and anchored entertainment news segments for HBO.

In September 1989, Lauer returned to New York City, this time to WWOR-TV, where he hosted 9 Broadcast Plaza, a three-hour live interview program.

He departed that series as it took a turn in booking "tabloid" guests and topics, and for what he relayed as a refusal to live-read ads on the show for Dial-a-Mattress.

WWOR-TV replaced Lauer with Richard Bey, and 9 Broadcast Plaza eventually morphed into The Richard Bey Show.

In 1990, he was hired by the Kushner-Locke Company to host a pilot called Day in Court, executive-produced by veteran producer David Sams, who helped to launch The Oprah Winfrey Show into national syndication.

The program was retitled Trial Watch when it went to series, and ran on the NBC network for two seasons.

NBC hired Robb Weller as host over Lauer when the program was picked up as a daily series.

The same year, he filmed a pilot for the World Wrestling Federation's bodybuilding spinoff, the World Bodybuilding Federation for USA Network known as WBF BodyStars, though WWF owner/chairman Vince McMahon later decided to host the program himself.

In 1991, Lauer appeared as the co-host (along with Willow Bay) of Etc., Etc., a show on the Travel Channel.

Lauer joined NBC in 1992, when he became co-anchor of the early weekday news show Today in New York on the network's New York flagship station WNBC.

Lauer filled in as the newsreader on The Today Show for Margaret Larson when needed from 1992 to 1993.

Lauer stepped in for Scott Simon, Mike Schneider and Jack Ford as the co-host of Weekend Today, and for Ann Curry as anchor of the former NBC News program NBC News at Sunrise from 1992 to 1997.

He had also filled in for Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News.

After serving as a local news personality in New York City on WNBC, his first national exposure was as the news anchor for The Today Show from 1994 to 1997.

After a year, he also filled the role of Live at Five co-anchor with Sue Simmons, eventually taking the role permanently and giving up the morning shift by 1994; he was replaced on Today in New York by Maurice DuBois.

This "audition" period allowed him to join The Today Show full-time in January 1994 as news anchor, while still co-anchoring Today in New York and Live at Five.

Lauer remained on Live at Five until 1996.

Lauer's on-camera presence would soon provide him many opportunities with NBC News.

In 1997, he was moved from the news desk to the host's chair, and served as the co-host of NBC's Today show from 1997 to 2017.

He was also a frequent contributor for the evening news magazine Dateline NBC.

With NBC, Lauer hosted the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and co-hosted the opening ceremonies of several Olympic Games.

Lauer earned his undergraduate degree from Ohio University at age 39 in 1997; he had studied at the school's Scripps College of Communication, School of Media Arts and Studies.

As the Today Show news anchor, he also substituted for Bryant Gumbel on the Today Show before being named the official co-anchor on January 6, 1997, after Gumbel stepped down.

On top of Lauer's duties on The Today Show, he also hosted programming on Discovery Channel and MSNBC.

From 1998 until 2011, Lauer embarked on what was generally an annual five-day, globe-spanning adventure called Where in the World is Matt Lauer? on the Today Show during TV sweeps.

The segment was named after the PBS game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? from which it borrowed the theme song.

This segment sent Lauer to various locations around the world, from where he reported on the importance of each location.

He broadcast from locations including Bhutan, Easter Island, the Panama Canal, Iran, Hong Kong, Croatia, and the Great Wall of China.

In 2011, NBC News postponed the segment in consideration of the stagnant, unstable U.S. economy.

On some occasions, Lauer conducted interviews that escalated into tense exchanges.

Lauer's contract was terminated by NBC in November 2017, after the network reported receiving "a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace" and added that the network had "reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident".

Lauer was born in New York City, the son of Marilyn Lauer, a boutique owner, and Jay Robert Lauer, a bicycle-company executive.

Lauer's father was of Romanian Jewish ancestry, as seen on the Today Show's Finding Our Roots. Lauer said, "My dad was Jewish. My mom is not. So I was not raised anything. I do feel a desire now to find something spiritual. Getting married and wanting to have kids has something to do with that."