On Wednesday, rumors began to swirl that Matt Lauer would be succeeded by Anderson Cooper as host of “Today,” according to The New York Times. The rumors were saying that an NBC executive called the CNN star to gauge his interest in co-hosting the NBC program. The network then made the following statement: “We are not considering replacing Matt Lauer.”
Lauer is under contract for a reported $25 million per year until the end of 2014. Rumors also arose last week that Lauer forced Ann Curry from her job on the show. Those rumors have hurt Lauer’s reputation some recently. The reported call to Cooper was to find out if he would join NBC later this year. His contract at CNN ends in the fall.
An executive of the network’s news division, released a statement anonymously, saying, “NBC News has many exploratory talks with talent inside and outside of the network, but to read anything specific into that is presumptuous. We are confident in our anchor team and are focused on producing great morning TV.”
It is not known who made the phone call to Cooper from NBC or its parent company, Comcast. The NBC news division is operating without a president right now. The chairwoman of NBCUniversal News Group, Patricia Fili-Krushel, oversees the news division. She used to work for Time Warner, which is the parent company of CNN.