Matt Lauer Biography

Matt Lauer (born Matthew Todd Lauer December 30, 1957) is an American television journalist best known as the host of NBC's The Today Show since 1996, He is also a contributor for NBC's Dateline NBC. He was previously a news anchor for The Today Show and for WNBC in New York City and a local talk-show host in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence and Richmond. He was also host of PM Magazine (or "Evening Magazine" 1980"86) and worked for ESPN in the 1980s as a sideline reporter. In the early 1990s, Lauer hosted segments of HBO Entertainment News.

Early life

He was born in New York City, the son of Marilyn Kolmer, a boutique owner, and Jay Robert Lauer, a bicycle-company executive. His parents divorced during his youth, and his father died in 1997. Lauer had become co-host of The Today Show, replacing longtime host Bryant Gumbel in early 1997, not long before his father's death.

Lauer is of Romanian Jewish descent on his father's side, as seen on the Today Show's Finding Our Roots. In 1999, both Lauer and his co-host Katie Couric initially resisted participation in the proposed series about their family roots. The series turned out to be a hit, and Lauer was moved by what he learned about his immigrant ancestors. "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."

Career

Lauer is a graduate of the School of Media Arts and Studies (formerly the School of Telecommunications) of Ohio University. He attended Ivy Tech, but dropped out. In 1997, he received his undergraduate degree from Ohio University at the age of 39. He had dropped out of Ohio University's School of Telecommunications in the Spring of 1979. The university awarded him his remaining credits by counting his journalism experience as "independent study" towards his degree. Lauer began his television career in 1979 as a producer of the 12 o'clock news for WOWK-TV in Huntington, West Virginia. By 1980, he had become an on-air reporter on the 6 and 11 o'clock newscasts. He then started to move around the country to further his career, hosting a number of weekly information and talk programs in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence and Richmond. He was also host of PM Magazine in Providence, RI and then in 1984 at WNEW-TV in New York City until the show's cancellation in 1986. In 1986 he co-hosted with Jill Rappaport WNYW-TV's Made In New York for its fifteen week run on the station. He also worked for ESPN in the 1980s. He worked on the show "Talk of the Town" during 1988.

Lauer was hired to host a three-hour live interview program, WWOR-TV's 9 Broadcast Plaza, from 1989 to 1991. 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. Ironically, NBC chose to hire Rob Weller, as host, over Lauer when the program was picked up as a daily series. In 1991 he appeared as the co-host (along with Willow Bay) of "Etc., Etc.", a show on The Travel Channel. Lauer moved to WNBC-TV in 1992 where he became co-anchor, alongside Jane Hanson, of the early weekday news show Today in New York. After a year, he also filled the role of Live at Five co-anchor with Sue Simmons. He held that job until 1996.

NBC News

Lauer's broad on-camera presence provided him with many opportunities with NBC's national news organization while working for WNBC in New York. Lauer filled in as the newsreader on The Today Show for Margaret Larson when needed from 1992 to 1993. 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 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. As the Today Show news anchor, he also pinch-hit for Bryant Gumbel on the Today Show before being named the official co-anchor on January 6, 1997, after Gumbel stepped down.

In addition to his duties on the Today Show, Lauer has also hosted programming on the Discovery Channel and MSNBC.

Career highlights

Beginning in 1998, Lauer embarked on what has generally been 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 has sent Lauer to various,locations around the World, from where he has reported on the importance of each location. In recent years, he has broadcast from locations including Bhutan, Easter Island, the Panama Canal, Iran, Hong Kong, Croatia and the Great Wall of China. In 2009, NBC News announced the popular segment would not air in consideration of the stagnant, unstable U.S. economy.

On some occasions, interviews conducted by Lauer have escalated into tense exchanges. In a June 2005 interview, Tom Cruise started an argument with Lauer about psychiatry and postpartum depression and called Lauer "glib". In December 2008, three and a half years later, Cruise said that he regrets the exchange, and even playfully arm-wrestled Matt Lauer in the same studio where the confrontation took place.

In a June 2006 interview with Ann Coulter, Coulter responded to Lauer's questioning her criticism of September 11, 2001 widows and said, "You're getting testy with me."

On December 30, 2009, during an on-set birthday party for him, Lauer introduced Abe Vigoda, star of the TV shows Barney Miller and Fish, who was standing behind the cameras. Lauer invited Vigoda to sit on the couch, where Lauer announced that Vigoda was his favorite guest of all time on the Today show.

In November 2006, Lauer and his daughter Romy hosted the Sesame Street direct-to-DVD show Sesame Beginnings: Exploring Together.

Lauer hosted The Greatest American on the Discovery Channel, which used Internet and telephone voting by viewers to select the winner. Lauer was critical of his own program since it tended to favor well-known figures over others who had less influence in pop culture. Since 1998, he has co-hosted NBC's live coverage of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Lauer guest-starred as himself on a live episode of Will & Grace in early 2006. (Former co-anchor Katie Couric had guest-starred as herself on an episode of the same NBC sitcom a few years earlier.)

On June 19, 2007, he interviewed Prince William and Prince Harry.

Lauer served as the 2009 Class Day speaker at Harvard University's undergraduate commencement ceremonies on June 3, 2009.

Lauer appeared as himself in the Land of the Lost movie, appearing in the beginning when Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell) appears on his show and single-handedly ruins his career. Lauer appears again at the end of the film, when Marshall shows up with his new book, Matt Lauer Can Suck It. Both scenes end in violent physical confrontation between the two, with the staff trying to break them up.

On the April 5, 2012, program, Lauer announced that he had signed a new contract with NBC News. The contract will reportedly pay Lauer $25 million annually.

Although it was widely reported by gossip websites that Lauer had much to do with his then co-host, Ann Curry's departure, these reports were later proven to be untrue. Ann Curry's departure was planned by then Today executive producer, Jim Bell. The plan was called "Operation Bambi". Lauer wanted Bell to delay the departure of Curry.

Lauer has co-hosted the opening ceremonies of several Olympic Games, carrying on what his former co-host Katie Couric had done since the 2000 Summer Olympics. He co-hosted the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the 2012 Summer Olympics. His commentary on the 2012 opening ceremonies, along with that of co-hosts Meredith Vieira and Bob Costas, came under fierce criticism, being described as "ignorant" and "banal".

Career timeline

• 1988: Talk of the Town host
• 1989"1991: 9 Broadcast Plaza host
• September 1992 " September 1994: Today in New York co-anchor
• August 1993 " September 1996: early evening newscast News Channel 4/Live at Five co-anchor
• June 13, 1994 " January 3, 1997: Today news anchor
• January 6, 1997 " present: Today co-anchor

Personal life

Lauer was married from 1981 until 1988, to a television producer named Nancy Alspaugh. The marriage ended in divorce. From 1989 until 1996, he dated Kristen Gesswein, a television newscaster. They were briefly engaged. In 1998, he married Annette Roque, a Dutch model known as "Jade." During Roque's pregnancy with their third child in 2006, she and Lauer separated. Although Roque filed for divorce in Manhattan Supreme Court on September 13, 2006, the couple subsequently reconciled.