For months, rumors have swirled that former Today Show host Matt Lauer was preparing to make a comeback after NBC fired him for sexual misconduct in November 2017. But, according to a new report, a return to TV is not in Lauer’s immediate future because no one was in interested in working with him.
“Matt’s friends are saying he has no plans to make a TV comeback, but the real truth is that no one really wants him back, not yet anyway,” an insider recently told In Touch Weekly. “Matt shouldn’t be picky, but the few offers he got were embarrassing … He’s gotten some random web show offers, but that’s not something he’s going to do. If he accepted a web series, he’d get even more negative press.”
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The source added that Lauer wants to get back on the air, but he doesn’t want to take any steps backward in his career. So, he is avoiding taking any job that would create a negative headline about “how the mighty have fallen.” Apparently, Lauer is patiently waiting for a network executive to “give him a shot.”
In a recent interview with Variety, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said that Lauer “was a grenade” that the network didn’t know was a grenade. Burke explained that for seven years at the company, he thought Lauer was “the greatest interviewer in news.”
After Lauer’s firing, ratings for the Today Show haven’t taken the nosedive that many expected. Nielsen reports that the NBC morning show’s numbers are just three percent lower than they were before Lauer left. Compared to the ten percent drop that CBS This Morning saw after Charlie Rose’s exit, the NBC numbers aren’t that painful.
Lauer has been laying low since leaving the Today Show, with insiders saying that he is focusing on his family while living in his $33 million Hamptons home. The 61-year-old is reportedly avoiding socializing with friends, and the only reason he gets out of the house is to support his kids’ events.
Matt Lauer agrees to pay Annette Roque up to $20M in divorce https://t.co/jadJ0QADoz pic.twitter.com/6s6A72mAVg
— Page Six (@PageSix) August 15, 2018
In April 2018, Lauer broke his silence and issued a statement saying that he acknowledged he “acted inappropriately as a husband, father, and principal at NBC.” However, he denied all allegations of abuse but took responsibility for having relationships with co-workers.
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Matt Lauer also apologized to the people he hurt and promised to repair the damage he caused his family. “I have worked every day since then to honor that promise,” said Lauer.
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