Matthew Todd Lauer is an American former television news personality, best known for his work with NBC News.
31 Facts About Matt Lauer
2.
Matt Lauer was a frequent contributor for the evening news magazine Dateline NBC.
3.
Matt Lauer's father was of Romanian Jewish ancestry, as seen on the Today Shows Finding Our Roots.
4.
Matt Lauer earned his undergraduate degree from Ohio University at age 39 in 1997; he had studied at the school's Scripps College of Communication, School of Media Arts and Studies.
5.
Matt Lauer had previously dropped out of the same institution in the spring of 1979 to begin his television career, after he was hired as a producer of the noon newscast for WOWK-TV in Huntington, West Virginia.
6.
Matt Lauer then started to move around the East Coast, hosting a number of daily information and talk programs.
7.
Matt Lauer was a co-host of PM Magazine in several cities, beginning in Richmond, then Providence, and then New York City.
8.
Matt Lauer then returned to local television, hosting programs in Philadelphia and Boston for a two-year period between 1987 and 1989, during which time he reported for ESPN and anchored entertainment news segments for HBO.
9.
In September 1989, Matt Lauer returned to New York City, this time to WWOR-TV, where he hosted 9 Broadcast Plaza, a three-hour live interview program.
10.
Matt Lauer departed that series as it took a turn in booking "tabloid" guests and topics, and for what he relayed as a refusal to live-read ads on the show for Dial-a-Mattress.
11.
In 1991, Matt Lauer appeared as the co-host of Etc.
12.
Matt Lauer joined NBC in 1992, when he became co-anchor of the early weekday news show Today in New York on the network's New York flagship station WNBC.
13.
Matt Lauer filled in as the newsreader on The Today Show for Margaret Larson when needed from 1992 to 1993.
14.
Matt Lauer stepped in for Scott Simon, Mike Schneider and Jack Ford as the co-host of Weekend Today, and for Ann Curry as anchor of the former NBC News program NBC News at Sunrise from 1992 to 1997.
15.
Matt Lauer had filled in for Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News.
16.
On some occasions, Matt Lauer conducted interviews that escalated into tense exchanges.
17.
Matt Lauer co-hosted the opening ceremonies of several Olympic Games, carrying on what his former co-host Katie Couric had done since the 2000 Summer Olympics.
18.
Matt Lauer co-hosted the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics, the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2012 Summer Olympics, the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2016 Summer Olympics.
19.
In November 2015, Matt Lauer hosted an interview with Charlie Sheen, during which Sheen revealed that he was HIV-positive.
20.
On September 8,2016, Matt Lauer conducted separate 30-minute interviews with presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, both of which were met with much criticism.
21.
Matt Lauer devoted much of the Clinton interview to questions about her e-mail server, and according to critics, appeared to rush through audience-led topics such as domestic terror attacks and veterans' affairs, implying that there was not enough time to cover these in detail.
22.
On November 30,2016, it was revealed that Matt Lauer had signed a new contract up to 2018.
23.
On January 6,2017, Matt Lauer celebrated his 20th anniversary on The Today Show with a look back at some of his most memorable moments on the show.
24.
Matt Lauer's contract had been scheduled to run through the end of 2018.
25.
In 2008, Matt Lauer was the subject of a roast by the New York Friars Club where several of his colleagues made jokes about his reputation for having relationships with his staff.
26.
Matt Lauer hosted The Greatest American on the Discovery Channel, which used internet and telephone voting by viewers to select the winner.
27.
Matt Lauer was critical of his own program, since it tended to favor well-known figures over others who had less influence in pop culture.
28.
Matt Lauer served as the 2009 Class Day speaker at Harvard University's undergraduate commencement ceremonies on June 3,2009.
29.
Matt Lauer was married to television producer Nancy Alspaugh from 1982 to 1989.
30.
Matt Lauer later married Dutch model Annette Roque, whom he met on a blind date in July 1997.
31.
Matt Lauer proposed to Roque after five months of dating, and the two wed in Bridgehampton, New York on October 3,1998.