Matt Lauer’s highly publicized termination from Today was met with a huge boost in ratings for the morning news program. For the first time in three months, the show was the most-watched program in the morning.
According to Pop Culture, Today surpassed ABC’s Good Morning America in total viewership last week. Usually, GMA wins the ratings game, so it’s a nice change that Today took the lead.
The morning show that was formerly hosted by Lauer averaged 4.9 million viewers, up 14 percent from its season average. Good Morning America was close behind with 4.4 million viewers and CBS This Morning came in third with only 3.5 million.
NBC isn’t sure if the ratings upswing will last long-term, as it could just be a spike following Lauer’s termination. However, they remain hopeful that his departure could lead to more viewers.
Last week, NBC terminated Matt Lauer following a complaint of “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.” When co-host Samantha Guthrie announced Matt’s departure on November 29, the rating hiked up to almost six million viewers for that episode. For the rest of the week of November 27, viewership continued to climb, averaging nearly five million for the week.
NBC has not named his replacement as co-host of the Today. It’s a seat Lauer occupied for more than two decades. A source close to the show claims that the network will have a hard time replacing him because he sabotaged their ability to line up someone who could replace him. If someone appeared to be able to slide into his top spot, he would allegedly find a reason for NBC to terminate them.
Apparently, Matt made sure that no potential replacements got the chance to be groomed for the lead anchor spot. Now, NBC is paying the price and they may not be able to replace him, an NBC insider revealed.
“Matt killed off, in their infancy, every man who could succeed him at the time that he was ready to hang it up — so there’s nobody to take his place. And now NBC is paying the price,” an insider told Page Six.
Matt Lauer’s exit from the #TODAYshow has coincided with a ratings boost for the morning news program: https://t.co/k3b5sjA4WH pic.twitter.com/zIVmr9iT6k
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) December 5, 2017
The list of men that NBC wanted to groom for the top spot were David Gregory, Josh Elliott, and former Today co-host, Billy Bush. However, Lauer shot them all down and found a way to NBC to get rid of each one.
There was some speculation that Megyn Kelly would take over Lauer’s position, but the NBC insider doesn’t see that happening. Apparently, NBC likes Megyn in her current role. The rumor on social media is that Willie Geist could replace Lauer.
NBC hopes that Today’s ratings continue to rise in the next few weeks. NBC will announce Matt Lauer’s replacement when they make a decision.