When it comes to NBC's "Today" show and former co-host Ann Curry, the company's $20-million-a-year man Matt Lauer, has kept out of the discussion for eight months, but now, he is broken the silence.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Beast published on Monday, Lauer said, I don't think the show and the network handled the transition well. You don't have to be Einstein to know that."
Adding, "It clearly did not help us. We were seen as a family, and we didn't handle a family matter well."
The Daily Beast ran an an accompanying video entitled "Matt Lauer Loves Ann Curry," and former NBC News President Steve Capus was also quoted in Monday's article, defending the star journalist.
"When Matt was informed that we had made this decision, his good counsel was to go slow, to take care of Ann and to do the right things," he said. "He was quietly and publicly a supporter of Ann's throughout the entire process. It is unfair that Matt has shouldered an undue amount of blame for a decision he disagreed with."
No one knows the reason for lauer's sudden change of heart to talk about how his bosses "blew it" when they axed Curry from the show, but New York Daily News reports that "he has born the brunt of the blame for the fiasco, though NBC officials have desperately tried to say he had nothing to do with it."
It was also revealed in the interview that even though he may have supported her during show execs' moves to get her out of the studio, the article also revealed that he had tried to woo Katie Couric back to 'Today' before Curry was officially promoted, but that the plan had fizzled largely due to money issues.
It hasn't just been a tough few months for Lauer, but "Today," who for the past 16 years was the nation's once highest-rated morning news program has also seen better days.
With the emergence of ABC's "Good Morning America" NBC, the fifth-rate TV network overall is, according to Fox News, in crisis management mode, but, so far, the attempts to reboot Lauer's image has been unsuccessful to say the least.
However, NBC's Chief Executive Steve Burke, has no plans to replace him.
"If you think the show's better off without me, let me know and I'll get out of the way," Burke recalled Lauer telling him, although he said that option was never on the table. "You're the best person who's ever done this," he said he told Lauer, according to Daily Beast.
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