NBC fired Matt Lauer, one of its leading morning news anchors, over allegations of sexual harassment on-set. A colleague sent Andrew Lack, the president of NBC News, a detailed report about inappropriate behavior at work. Lack decided that Lauer’s behavior was “a clear violation of [our] company’s standards.” Lauer was another link in a chain of recent terminations in television news, following sexual harassment allegations against Bill O’Reilly of Fox News and Charlie Rose of CBS.
The reporter was the centerpiece of TODAY and has built up a reputation as one of the top reporters in journalism. Lauer has had an incredible career. Just how much is this news anchor worth?
Matt Lauer’s Estimated Net Worth as of 2018: $60 million
Let’s take a look at where his journey began.
1957 – 1989
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Lauer was born in New York City to a boutique owner and a bicycle company executive. His parents divorced when he was a child, but aside from the split, Lauer had a pretty typical life until he dropped out of Ohio University to pursue television.
He landed a job that year as a producer for WOWK-TV in West Virginia. By the following year, Lauer had become an on-air reporter for the 6:00 o’clock and the 11:00 o’clock news. The reporter began hosting a number of information-based and talk-segment shows around the country and went on to host PM Magazine, WNYW-TV’s Made in New York, Fame Fortune and Romance and Talk of the Town.
1989 – 1993
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Lauer hosted a three-hour live interview program, WWOR-TV’s 9 Broadcast Plaza, in 1989. This led to his hiring by the Kushner-Locke Company to host a pilot called Day In Court.
Lauer really made a name for himself in 1992 when WNBC-TV hired him and he became an anchor alongside Jane Hanson of Today in New York. Because of his television exposure, Lauer was granted the opportunity to fill in for Margaret Larson on The Today Show.
1994 – 2011
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Lauer joined The Today Show as a full-time news anchor in 1994. He began substituting for various programs on NBC and went back to Ohio University to complete his undergraduate degree in 1997 when he was 39 years old. Lauer also hosted shows on the Discovery Channel and MSNBC. In 1998, the reporter journeyed across the globe for a program called Where In The World Is Matt Lauer? The show went off air in 2009.
2012 – Present
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NBC offered Lauer a salary of $28 million when his contract came up for renewal in 2012. The network believed he may not have wanted to stick around after his co-host Ann Curry left the show. He signed the contract and focused on NBC until he filled in for Bob Costas at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Lauer signed a new contract with NBC in 2016, but he was just terminated due to the aforementioned sexual harassment allegations.
2018
A ‘Today’ show staffer defended Matt Lauer and blamed the former anchor’s firing on the #MeToo Movement.
