Eight months after TV host Ann Curry was fired from her anchor position at NBC's "Today" morning show, co-host Matt Lauer is setting the record straight that he was not involved in the producer's decision to get rid of Curry.
In a recent interview with the Daily Beast, Lauer told writer Howard Kutz that not only is he not to blame for Curry's ousted, but he also fought for her to stay on the show. Contrary to popular belief that he caused her departure, Lauer said that the "Today" producers made a bad decision to fire Curry in an effort to increase their ratings.
"I don't think the show and the network handled the transition well. You don't have to be Einstein to know that," Lauer told Kurtz. "It clearly did not help us. We were seen as a family, and we didn't handle a family matter well."
Despite Curry's absence, "Today" is still falling behind its rival "Good Morning America" on ABC. Curry's replacement, Savannah Guthrie, has not helped the network's effort to beat out "GMA" which recently announced that it averaged 5.7 million viewers in the month of Febraury compared to "Today's" 4.8 million.
According to the Daily Beast, Lauer told former NBC News president Steve Capus that replacing Curry was "a terrible idea," and it could "destabilize the show." In fact, Lauer even suggested ways that the show staffers could "produce their way around her strengths and weaknesses."
However, the NBC execs ignored Lauer's warnings and told him "the decision was above his pay grade," writes Kurtz.
On Curry's last show in June, she gave a tearful good-bye speech after spending 15 years on the show, stating, "I'm sorry I couldn't carry the ball over the finish line, but, man, I did try."
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