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Uhh...Mess that they created?

They didn't talk with Ryan Lochte about the incident in Rio that screwed him (and--for a bit--Team USA) over and came to the conclusion that he "embellished" the truth. They didn't get into a heated argument with Al Roker to foolishly defend him. And they damn sure didn't get into a super creepy and inappropriate discussion with Donald Trump about making a run at (married) Nancy O'Dell and ending it with implied sexual assault. He did. What he got into he put on himself. And they never would've known (or had the foresight) about the boneheaded mistakes he made to have gotten him (and them by extension) into this sad predicament.

Sure, to give you credit, NBC execs (specifically those at Today) hired him in place of Natalie Morales (who wanted a different job before then anyway) for and took too long to remove him from Today after the Olympics (IMO), but bullcrap if you want to believe that NBC started the mess that got Bush to lose his job.

 

Agreed that NBC didn't start it, or create the mess.

 

But....

 

I can promise you that in an upper exec conference room at 30 rock these words were spoken on the Billy Bush matter...

 

"Can we monetize this on our NBC platforms , or in any way capitalize on this matter?"

 

When the answer was a clear "no", then the Bush execution papers were drawn.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I just miss this woman, NBC and Matt Lauer should be ashamed of themselves for getting rid of her. When will Matt's contract end, he needs to go and bring her back. That will bring NBC back on top and be a good PR move. This heavy news cycle right now, NBC needs her. I miss her clarity and the seriousness she brought to the Today show. All those years of hardwork wasted because she did not want to flirt with Matt Lauer and the celebs.

 

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NBC and Matt Lauer should be ashamed of themselves for getting rid of her.

 

Hasn't it been established that Matt had nothing to do with her firing?

 

When will Matt's contract end, he needs to go and bring her back. That will bring NBC back on top and be a good PR move.

 

NBC has stated publicly that they love Matt and will let him stay around for however long he wants. It also wouldn't be a good PR move because then it just looks like them saving face........several years after the fact. All that will do is rekindle a fire.

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Lester pretty much does what ever show he is told to do. Since Lester is such a pro he works well across all platforms.

 

"Where do you need me?"....that's how Lester operates(for now) unlike the rest of the funky bunch.

 

Notice they've never asked Matt to fill in on Nightly News. Savannah, Ann Curry, and Natalie Morales have all filled i. Says alot!

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I do like the combination of Matt and Savanaha. Overall, very good combination

 

They are okay together but there is nothing special about their partnership. Matt has to many unlikable qualities, one of the things Meredith and Katie were able to do was make him as Tom Cruise says "not as glib". Savannah is just cookie cutter host, she is intelligent but her strengths does not come out hosting a mediocre morning show, she lacks certain maternal and warm qualities that people associate with female hosts. Today show producers have been trying hard to change Lauer's image to be more sincere.

 

Hasn't it been established that Matt had nothing to do with her firing?

 

NBC has stated publicly that they love Matt and will let him stay around for however long he wants. It also wouldn't be a good PR move because then it just looks like them saving face........several years after the fact. All that will do is rekindle a fire

 

Actually quite the opposite, Matt was one of the main culprits behind Ann's firing. It's covered extensively in Brian Stelter's book exactly how it all went down.

 

He played a huge part as well as Jim Bell, he was leverging his contract with NBC, he manipulated the execs and NBC was willing to pay him $25 million dollars so he can stay. In exchange, he said he will stay as long as she leaves, Curry was scapegoated and left to hang dry. It is known by people who work behind the scenes that Lauer played a part, the problem with Matt is that he has used other people and their misfortunes so he won't take accountability and keep himself on top. He is known to be a type of person who has no humble qualities about him.

 

Notice they've never asked Matt to fill in on Nightly News. Savannah, Ann Curry, and Natalie Morales have all filled in. Says alot!

 

He did fill in one night and he got negative reviews across the board and when doing evening news, Matt hardly qualifies as being a "credible" or "legit" journalist. He is just a tv personality who for the last 20 years of his career made a living playing around with celebrities, cooking food and dressing up as a woman.

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They are okay together but there is nothing special about their partnership. Matt has to many unlikable qualities, one of the things Meredith and Katie were able to do was make him as Tom Cruise says "not as glib". Savannah is just cookie cutter host, she is intelligent but her strengths does not come out hosting a mediocre morning show, she lacks certain maternal and warm qualities that people associate with female hosts. Today show producers have been trying hard to change Lauer's image to be more sincere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He played a huge part as well as Jim Bell, he was leverging his contract with NBC, he manipulated the execs and NBC was willing to pay him $25 million dollars so he can stay. In exchange, he said he will stay as long as she leaves, Curry was scapegoated and left to hang dry. It is known by people who work behind the scenes that Lauer played a part, the problem with Matt is that he has used other people and their misfortunes so he won't take accountability and keep himself on top. He is known to be a type of person who has no humble qualities about him.

 

 

 

He did fill in one night and he got negative reviews across the board and when doing evening news, Matt hardly qualifies as being a "credible" or "legit" journalist. He is just a tv personality who for the last 20 years of his career made a living playing around with celebrities, cooking food and dressing up as a woman.

Did he steal your lunch money as a child or kick your puppy or something?

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Did he steal your lunch money as a child or kick your puppy or something?

 

You are very funny, :cool: just calling it like it see it and plus the reports about Lauer and what they are doing to rehab Lauer's image is out there. It is not like I am saying this out of the blue, a lot of this is observed and backed up by media critics and reporters like Brian Stelter.

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Figure that and within the next couple of years they will have to make a decision on who can replace him.

Why? He's not that old, and as long as Today keeps bringing in the cash by the boatloads to Comcast, I can see them keeping him around for the next 10 years or so.

 

Hey, at $20 million bucks a year, I wouldn't care working the AM shift, nice vacations, and all them perks that come with the job...

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They've likely been pondering this for quite some time already. As it stands now, there probably isn't anyone with NBC News that could.

 

Because Today show is kiss of death for male anchors that are not Matt Lauer. They have a bad track record of how they mismanaged replacement prospects. The only one that escaped unscathed was Willie Geist.

 

Lester Holt probably was not considered a "front runner" for a long time, but he was viewers favorite also respected by execs and producers. He was his own man and wanted to protect his reputation as a serious journalist.

 

Why? He's not that old, and as long as Today keeps bringing in the cash by the boatloads to Comcast, I can see them keeping him around for the next 10 years or so.

 

Hey, at $20 million bucks a year, I wouldn't care working the AM shift, nice vacations, and all them perks that come with the job.

 

The fact that he has yearly contracts show that NBC does not have much faith in him for a veteran and that he costs to much considering that their ratings have been stagnating. George.S and Robin Roberts have iron clad contracts, so they will likely keep their jobs for another 10 years.

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Because Today show is kiss of death for male anchors that are not Matt Lauer. They have a bad track record of how they mismanaged replacement prospects. The only one that escaped unscathed was Willie Geist.

 

Lester Holt probably was not considered a "front runner" for a long time, but he was viewers favorite also respected by execs and producers. He was his own man and wanted to protect his reputation as a serious journalist.

 

 

 

The fact that he has yearly contracts show that NBC does not have much faith in him for a veteran and that he costs to much considering that their ratings have been stagnating. George.S and Robin Roberts have iron clad contracts, so they will likely keep their jobs for another 10 years.

The page six article says he signed a 2-year contract-perhaps longer. That's not a yearly contract. Plus, his last major contract was for 2 years and before that 4 years, I believe. And if they had little to no faith in him, they would have canned him long ago. Same goes with the money, if Comcast felt they were paying him too much, then they would have sent him packing. He's not a god, he's replaceable.

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NBC simply did not see a better option and they are continuing to win in the 25-54 age range. Would they like to win in total viewers? Sure, but it is really just for bragging rights. I would assume that since Willie's show on Sundays has not done tha well, it is probably the reason for why he has not been given the job.

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The page six article says he signed a 2-year contract-perhaps longer. That's not a yearly contract. Plus, his last major contract was for 2 years and before that 4 years, I believe. And if they had little to no faith in him, they would have canned him long ago. Same goes with the money, if Comcast felt they were paying him too much, then they would have sent him packing. He's not a god, he's replaceable.

 

But hey, lets let personal animosity get in the way of reporting facts!

 

Lauer will work on Today for as long as he wants but I don't think he has the desire to do it for that much longer, even as he just signed that contract. The fear inside 30 Rock is that once he goes, the ratings would slide especially as there still isn't the de facto next person in line. And since the show is doing well in the demo, there isn't this desire to replace Lauer.

 

I also enjoy the revisionist history about Ann Curry. She never was a good fit in the anchor chair on Today and that was obvious to anyone who watched. The ratings started to dip a little bit, they felt the urge to push out Curry and Lauer didn't offer her a life raft. Stelter has never said that Lauer was at fault for pushing Curry out and put the onus on Jim Bell.

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I tihnk Matt and Savannah have fine chemistry. sure it not like his Chemistry with Katie and Meredith (Nothing can beat the Chemistry he had with them) but it is better then Chemistry with Ann. they have found there Shtick.

 

I tihnk part of Ann problem was she was just not good for that Anchor Chair (I like Ann but she was better as Newsreader) and she didn't do well at playing along with Matt like Katie, Meredith and Savannah. She was't there with a comeback and when she was it usually fell short.

 

By 2011 she built a reputation as a hard news reporter who went out into the field and reported on location.

 

Savannah may have had some issues (They all have) when she first started but she has improve and has come into her own. She always get praise when she doing big breaking news stories.

 

I notice a change after her First Maternity Leave. Maybe there be another after her second.

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But hey, lets let personal animosity get in the way of reporting facts!

 

Lauer will work on Today for as long as he wants but I don't think he has the desire to do it for that much longer, even as he just signed that contract. The fear inside 30 Rock is that once he goes, the ratings would slide especially as there still isn't the de facto next person in line. And since the show is doing well in the demo, there isn't this desire to replace Lauer.

 

I also enjoy the revisionist history about Ann Curry. She never was a good fit in the anchor chair on Today and that was obvious to anyone who watched. The ratings started to dip a little bit, they felt the urge to push out Curry and Lauer didn't offer her a life raft. Stelter has never said that Lauer was at fault for pushing Curry out and put the onus on Jim Bell.

 

Ann Curry is a solid journalist, the problem was that she did not want to do the entertainment aspect of the show. She felt the program could've gone a more serious direction in becoming a more informative morning show then a show that caters towards soft news and entertainment. That was one of her goals which is why she advocated for certain guests to come on her program like the Dali Lama.

Matt Lauer and Ann Curry were apples and oranges with their philosophies, he wanted to do more soft content and she wanted to do more serious news content. Lauer is by no means a serious journalist, he is just an interviewer and he has a very plum job for doing nothing of journalistic standards you can't teach an old dog new tricks. If Curry had a better partner that shared her philosophies like Lester Holt, then most of the NBC serial behind the scenes drama would've been avoided. I fancied a Lester Holt and Ann Curry pairing which should've happened, and what viewers were trying to advocate for before her firing.

 

That fear of ratings slippage if Lauer leaves is a myth, the program will survive without him. Today show ratings are declining with him still there, within the next couple of years CBS This Morning is slowly going to place a dent on Today's show ratings and they are starting to already. Ratings on both GMA and Today show have declined compared to a couple of years ago. Part of it is due to CBS This Morning's rise.

 

I tihnk Matt and Savannah have fine chemistry. sure it not like his Chemistry with Katie and Meredith (Nothing can beat the Chemistry he had with them) but it is better then Chemistry with Ann. they have found there Shtick.

 

I tihnk part of Ann problem was she was just not good for that Anchor Chair (I like Ann but she was better as Newsreader) and she didn't do well at playing along with Matt like Katie, Meredith and Savannah. She was't there with a comeback and when she was it usually fell short.

 

By 2011 she built a reputation as a hard news reporter who went out into the field and reported on location.

 

Savannah may have had some issues (They all have) when she first started but she has improve and has come into her own. She always get praise when she doing big breaking news stories.

 

I notice a change after her First Maternity Leave. Maybe there be another after her second.

 

The thing about Today show is that if you don't play the game or flirt with Matt Lauer, you will never be part of "club". It is well know that morning show like Today is like high school clique and it is part that culture. Today show started shifting more entertainment esque the last year Meredith was there. Today show is no longer a program for the serious journalists, they had serious journalists who hosted before but look at what happened to all of them, they either could not fit in, demoted or left to do new projects.

 

Savannah Guthrie is someone who got ahead cause what she was, which was a lawyer. Lawyers move around pretty quickly in the news business. They will get a promotion quicker then someone who graduates with a journalism degree. A good portion of pundits, hosts, analysts and reporters are lawyers. If Savannah Guthrie was not a lawyer, she still would have been a journey woman anchor/reporter. Overall, not taking anything away from her, she did build her way up but it was unfortunate that she got the job at the expense of another respected journalist. Curry did not do anything wrong, she was scapegoated out of her job and it was awkward for Savannah to get the job that quickly. The optics was poor taste.

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But hey, lets let personal animosity get in the way of reporting facts!

 

Lauer will work on Today for as long as he wants but I don't think he has the desire to do it for that much longer, even as he just signed that contract. The fear inside 30 Rock is that once he goes, the ratings would slide especially as there still isn't the de facto next person in line. And since the show is doing well in the demo, there isn't this desire to replace Lauer.

 

I also enjoy the revisionist history about Ann Curry. She never was a good fit in the anchor chair on Today and that was obvious to anyone who watched. The ratings started to dip a little bit, they felt the urge to push out Curry and Lauer didn't offer her a life raft. Stelter has never said that Lauer was at fault for pushing Curry out and put the onus on Jim Bell.

 

So while you're speaking of revisioning history... why don't you do yourself a favor and read the damn book in which Stelter explains how Matt worked with Jim Bell to have Ann ousted. Don't demean Matt by undermining his backstabbing actions, he and Jim Bell were the two leaders in the outing Curry coalition. I may dislike Lauer but I will use facts to back that up, don't challenge me on that.

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So while you're speaking of revisioning history... why don't you do yourself a favor and read the damn book in which Stelter explains how Matt worked with Jim Bell to have Ann ousted. Don't demean Matt by undermining his backstabbing actions, he and Jim Bell were the two leaders in the outing Curry coalition. I may dislike Lauer but I will use facts to back that up, don't challenge me on that.

 

I did read the book and Stelter's reporting that preceded it. Bell was the driving force behind firing Curry and getting her off the show. That's not to say that Lauer is innocent because he isn't, he could've stepped in to defend her but he didn't. Everybody knows he didn't like working with her, didn't want her in the first place and that he had complained about her to management. But the reporting indicates that Bell was the first one to deem Curry the problem and decided that she had to go.

 

From Stelter:

"By comparison, “Today” had stuck to the same camera angles and scripted intros and outros since the 1990s. Some suggested that the show was getting stale. Others privately wondered if Lauer’s star power was beginning to fade. By January, Bell had another culprit in mind: Ann Curry. So insistent was Bell that Curry was the problem — that she was “out of position,” as he put it in an e-mail to his deputies — that he had been talking about it with friends for months. One morning-TV veteran suggested to him that firing Curry, who had been co-hosting for only about six months at that point, would be tantamount to “killing Bambi.” Undeterred, Bell hatched a careful three-part plan: 1.) persuade Lauer to extend his expiring contract; 2.) oust Curry; 3.) replace her with Savannah Guthrie. According to this source, Bell called his plan Operation Bambi.

...

At “Today,” the enmity started at the highest levels, between Bell and the man who was technically his boss, Steve Capus, the president of NBC News. Capus, who was known around the office as “the Rage,” a reference to his short temper, resented Bell, who was adept at navigating NBC’s internal politics and who was perceived to be close to Steve Burke, the chief executive of NBCUniversal. When Capus learned that Bell wanted to force Curry out, he invoked “the streak” and argued that her removal would force the show out of first place. So Bell appealed directly to Burke. “We need to make a change,” Bell told him. Burke ultimately agreed. Operation Bambi was a go."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/magazine/who-can-save-the-today-show.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

 

From New York Magazine:

"Within six months, executive producer Jim Bell had come to the conclusion that Curry wasn’t working out. She frequently stumbled over the words on the teleprompter and her intensity sometimes made her difficult to watch during interviews with tragedy victims. But, more important, Lauer looked awkward and unhappy next to her—a situation that Lauer himself had also diagnosed. He openly complained about her to NBC staffers and to Bell. And the ratings seemed to reflect her struggles."

http://nymag.com/news/features/today-show-hosts-2013-4/index1.html

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It has been an absolute pleasure watching Hoda fill in while Savannah is on maternity leave. Perhaps Savannah should stay home with her kids and Hoda slide right in on a permanent basis. While I know that is unrealistic, it would make the show watchable again. Matt and Savannah's bias is nauseating, at least Hoda brings a journalistic balance.

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