Matt Lauer Forced Anne Curry Off NBC's 'Today' Because He 'Simply Didn't Like Her'

It just got a lot harder for NBC and Matt Lauer to deny any ill will in Ann Curry's firing from the 'Today' show. The veteran star of the network's morning show was terminated last year not due to low ratings, but because Lauer "simply didn't like her," according to a revealing behind-the-scenes article in New York Magazine.

The roughly 8,000-word piece alleges that Lauer often "openly complained" about Curry's presence on the "Today" show, and that he was ostensibly the reason she was fired.

"Everybody at NBC, everybody at the Today show, everybody understood that Ann was kicked out of her position because Matt didn't want her there," an elite NBC staff member told New York Magazine. "That's why it was so personal between Ann and Matt."

Curry waited patiently in the wings for years at 'Today,' providing hard international news for the otherwise soporific morning program's landmark coverage of Justin Bieber concerts and the 10 best pet Halloween costumes. She plugged away for years filing stories from remote locations, with nothing but the thin hope of getting a chance at hosting with Lauer, and finally got her shot after Meredith Vieira left the show in 2011. However, the victory would be short-lived; it turns out, Lauer had it in for Curry since day one.

"Off air, Curry and Lauer had no relationship and barely spoke," according to NY Magazine. "When she started, Curry had asked Lauer out for lunch to get advice, but Lauer seemed to drag his feet scheduling it and Curry felt he didn't offer much. ... with Curry, who threw off his rhythm and also threatened his dominance of the hard-news stories, he could often look sour."

As it turns out, things only got worse between the two over time. Lauer was apparently feeling pressure he might be replaced with Ryan Seacrest due to low ratings and his age, and his anxiety was beginning to bleed into 'Today' show production.  

"By early last year, Lauer seemed to his colleagues to be growing more and more disgruntled. He began getting more involved in the daily story lineup, getting in fights with producers and tearing the show up in the early-morning hours. He made it clear to friends that he was miserable with Curry and uncomfortable with his corporate masters at Comcast."

Layer was so unhappy, NBC allowed him to pursue a position possibly hosting another show at ABC with his former co-host Katie Couric. He even openly courted the rival network, with his agent and execs at ABC saying they considered negotiations to be a done deal. Instead, it seems Lauer used the job with ABC to leverage a far better contract for himself at NBC at the expense of losing Curry, whose job he did nothing to try and save. With Lauer holding all the cards, NBC handed the host a considerable raise of $25-million-a-year for a four-day work week. Curry ... well, you know the rest.

Lauer has been in spin mode recently, trying to disavow any bad blood. He recently told The Daily Beast that "I don't think the show and the network handled the transition well. You don't have to be Einstein to know that. It clearly did not help us. We were seen as a family, and we didn't handle a family matter well."

Sounds like a bit of an understatement to us. Not only did NBC fire Curry, they also banned her from conducting live interviews for two years because of clauses in her contract.