Two days after a rumor that Meredith Vieira will leave the Today Show this year, another one popped up about Matt Lauer leaving the show when his contract is up at the end of the year! But TMZ claims that Lauer is just taking advantage of NBC's desperation to keep the top morning talk show team in place and wants $25 million/year, up from his current $17 million/year.
The Today Show is a cash cow for NBC—it generated $454 million in advertising revenue last year (Reuters reports that second-place Good Morning America earned $314 million for ABC).
Media company Optimedia's chief broadcast buyer Maureen Bosetti told the Hollywood Reporter, "We're concerned that having two hosts leave at the same time is very jarring. It would be very concerning especially as we're about to put a lot of money on that show... When there is uncertainty about ratings you ask how much investment do you want to make. It will impact some of the decision-making we have to do in the next month or so." In other words, NBC better get a handle on this, press releases be damned!
Lauer has been with the Today Show since 1997—before that, he was with WNBC 4.
