How the Today show handled Matt Lauer in its 70th anniversary celebration

Former anchor was fired in 2017

Matt Lauer on the ‘Today’ show on 22 August 2014 in New York City (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

Matt Lauer was largely – but not completely – absent from the Today show’s celebration of its own 70th anniversary.

The show marked the occasion on Friday (14 January) with a 12-minute segment looking back on the programme’s history.

Lauer was an anchor on Today for 14 years between 1994 and 2017. He was fired after NBC reviewed allegations of “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace” on his part.

Lauer issued an apology at the time, stating in part: “Some of what is being said about me is untrue or mischaracterized, but there is enough truth in these stories to make me feel embarrassed and ashamed. I regret that my shame is now shared by the people I cherish dearly.”

The Today show’s 12-minute segment includes a few glimpses of Lauer’s time on the programme, all taken from archival footage.

He can be seen in the introduction, around the five-second mark.

Lauer appears again four minutes in, in footage from the programme’s 9/11 coverage. He’s seen again a few seconds later, interviewing Hillary Clinton.

Two more appearances occur nine minutes in – one featuring Lauer in front of the Great Pyramids in Egypt, and the other from a segment he once filmed while scuba-diving.

Ahead of the Today show’s anniversary, executive producer Tom Mazzarelli had been asked by Adweek’s TVNewser whether Lauer would be shown in the programme’s celebration material.

“We’re going to look back at our history, and he’s a part of our history, as are all the anchors throughout the last 70 years,” Mazzarelli had told the publication. “You’ll see him.”