DEMOTION LEAKED IN MARCH

Ann Curry’s Demotion: Writing Was On The Wall Three Months Ago

By Elizabeth C.

NEARLY THREE MONTHS TO THE DAY THAT Gawker quoted inside NBC executives calling Ann Curry “hopeless” and “atrocious,” and contending that Matt Lauer “absolutely hates her,” the longtime news personality made a tearful goodbye from Today this morning.

“This is not easy to say but today is going to be my last morning as a regular cohost of Today,” Curry, 55, said shortly after 8am. “I’ll still be a part of the Today Show family but I’m going to have a new title and a new role. And this is not as I expected to ever leave this couch after 15 years.”

She joked that “after all these years I don’t even know if I can sleep in anymore,” poured verbal love on the cast and audience, and apologized for turning into a “sob sister this morning.”

Matt Lauer, seeming more condescending than sincere, told Ann she has “the biggest heart in the business….The way you care about people comes through in every story you do.” He also thanked her for making the show “better.” It was an odd choice of words considering that Curry had been fingered as the reason that “all is not well” at the venerated news show.

Television insiders say Curry is taking the hit for Today‘s aberrant second-place ranking in April against ABC’s Good Morning America and several subsequent weeks after have solidly held first place for 16 years.

“I know I am not to blame for the ratings worries,” Curry told USA Today. “And my bosses have said to me there are many factors involved. There is no doubt that the rating wars have become meaner and less focused on our responsibilities as journalists.”

But in his March 27 story, Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio quoted anonymous executives calling Curry’s transition to co-host “strained,” contending Lauer “hates her,” and saying “everybody knows she’s gone.”

The leaked story came just days before Lauer signed a new multi-year deal reported worth $25 million a year, raising questions (at least, in my mind) that he may have had a hand in Curry’s exit. He is routinely described as the show’s “lynchpin” and even “demigod.”

As salve for the indignity of being publicly fired, Curry becomes Today’s anchor-at-large and NBC News national/international correspondent. But what remains to be seen is whether the medicine will cure her or the show.

“I have called the co-host job at the Today Show my dream job,” Curry told USA Today yesterday. “And I would be lying if I said it was easy to leave.”