They say they learned of it on Monday did a serious investigation and fired him on Tuesday.
Must’ve been some damning evidence.
And while they denied hearing of any such allegations in th past, they seem quite open to believing that this was not a one time infraction.
Lauer’s serial philandering is one of the worst-kept secrets in media circles. As a horndog, he is in the Clinton class, with a list of extra-marital affairs and hook-ups that would make ol’ Bill green with envy.
Lauer’s first wife divorced him in the early 90s for cheating on her repeatedly. After being dumped as a talk show host at WWOR-TV, he got another shot in New York, this time as morning news reader at WNBC-TV. His ratings performance at Channel 4 got him the job on Today, anchoring the newscasts and eventually, replacing then-host Bryant Gumbel.
Even in the early days—when you’d think Lauer would be on his best behavior—there were all sorts of rumors and tabloid reports on his behavior. He was named in the divorce of a Florida woman; Lauer claimed he was flying to Florida every weekend to visit his ailing father, but actually, he was carrying on an affair with a married woman. NBC—realizing that Lauer was ratings gold—buried these reports, and the rest of the MSM went along, covering for one of their own. Interestingly, one of the executives who went to bat for Lauer was Andy Lack, the same guy who finally canned him last night.
Lauer eventually married again (to a Dutch supermodel), but she filed for divorce in 2006, accusing him of cruel and inhumane treatment. They reconciled a few months later; apparently his huge paychecks—which eventually reached $25 million a year—were enough to keep her in the marriage. Meanwhile, Lauer continued to cut a wide swath through the female population. There were reports of an affair with Natalie Morales, an NBC colleague, and rumors of many more trysts, some of those with network staffers as well.
How did he get by with it for such a Weinstein-like eternity? Viewers (for reasons I cannot fathom) liked Lauer and made the Today Show #1 in its timeslot for a decade, generating somewhere between $3 and $5 billion in profits for NBC. Today was, by far, the most profitable program on the network schedule and the suits were more than willing to look the other way—and pay Lauer a king’s ransom for his services.
Since 2012, Today has generally trailed Good Morning America in the ratings, and Lauer’s value to the network has declined. When allegations of sexual assault against Lauer surfaced on Monday, NBC had to investigate them and it wasn’t hard to confirm them. In fact, it’s almost a sure bet that more victims will come forward (given Lauer’s history) and the network decided to cut him loose before the inevitable drip..drip..drip of new complaints begins.
But don’t discount the possibility that NBC sees a silver lining in this mess, namely, the chance to get rid of an over-priced anchor and save more than $20 million a year. They know they can achieve similar ratings with lower-paid talent.