Background
Matt Lauer is a sixty-year-old broadcast personality, from the United States’ New York City. In 1979, he was on the verge of completing his journalism degree at Athens’ Ohio University. However, Lauer dropped out to begin his career as an intern at a West Virginia television station. Nonetheless, the university granted Lauer his bachelor’s degree in 1997, after considering his journalism experience that was referred to as an independent study. After a while working at the Huntington television station, he was promoted and became the news producer and on-air reporter. These posts allowed him to start building on his resume, which turned out to be quite diverse and impressive.
Later on, Matt went ahead to look for greener pastures in several places, including Philadelphia, Boston, Providence and New York City, where he accepted some positions. During this search for greener pastures that lasted about a decade, he experienced a certain growth in his career. Also, he traveled extensively in the process. Lauer worker for several news magazines such as the PM Magazine was a reporter for numerous stations and hosted various talk-shows. New York was Lauer’s last stop where he settled and his career has proven fruitful. Also, fame contributed much to his success as a journalist.
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Work and Achievements
After Lauer’s relocation to New York, he became host to several of the shows on television. At this time, he was unstable and could not find a permanent workstation. However, he was fortunate to become the 9 Broadway Plaza talk show host. After some time, WNBC offered him the co-anchor position for Today in New York. This news program gave Lauer the chance to get into The Today Show, which was nationally televised. WNBC television also granted him the co-anchor position for its other show, Live at Five. Sooner than expected, Lauer served both the local media market of New York and nationally. As a result, he became Today’s newsreader. Several other positions came up at the same time, including those involving NBC Nightly News, News at Sunrise and Weekend Today. Working for NBC was a turning point in Lauer’s career, despite it being already impressive. He has continued to have a long and productive working relationship with the television company till to date. The United States morning show, The Today Show, has given room for Lauer to meet with prominent people, such as Presidents Barrack Obama and George Bush while conducting high profile interviews. Aside from the presidents, Lauer has had the pleasure to me other politicians, celebrities, and dignitaries in his line of work. His job as a host has displayed his mass-appeal, prominence, and virtuosity. As a result, Lauer has become among the most popular figures in television, rendering him to sign contracts worth millions with NBC. His participation in the NBC’s achievements and winning of awards has also contributed to his firm stay at the channel.
Challenges
Despite the winning of awards and making achievements, Lauer has faced some challenges that have weighed him down. Several of these challenges are allegedly related to his co-host Ann Curry. According to Abad-Santos (2013), the both Matt Lauer and Ann Curry did not get along on camera, hence referring to Lauer as a bully. Also, he was accused of dressing in expensive updated wardrobe, as a means to brag about his millions to Ann. Consequently, the show crew made fun of Curry’s clothes. Moreover, the television team claimed that he was not happy being her co-host. The victimization of Ann led to her demise from NBC, leaving Lauer to deal with the blame for losing a good host.
A group of Today’s viewers was not happy with Ann’s demise. They blamed Lauer because they believed that he neither liked her nor helped her as a co-worker should. Consequently, these viewers shifted to watching Good Morning America, broadcasted by ABC. As a result, the ratings of the Today show drastically reduced. Also, the public sentiment measuring company, Marketing Evaluations Inc., claimed that the positive “Q” score of Lauer had been affected as well due to the scandal. Previously, twenty-three percent of those aware of the media personality regarded his as the best broadcaster. However, this score dropped to fourteen, then nine percent. This drop in people’s interest in the show as well had resulted in a rumor that Lauer’s job was about to be given to CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
NBC did not fire Lauer. Instead, the television company defended the journalist with the news executive saying, “Matt Lauer is the best in the business” (Associated Press, 2013). Also, the company tried repairing his image by involving more hosts in the show and selling the idea that he had a good relationship with his co-hosts. Eventually, the show began to gain popularity again, since Lauer did not lose hope on winning the hearts of the American people. According to Huddleston (2016), the company renewed the contract with the media personality, which will ensure that he continues to host the show in 2018. Therefore, the success and challenges of being in the spotlight did not shake Lauer into giving up his career. Even at his age, he is still vibrant in making the best out of his broadcast personality.
References
Abad-Santos, A. (2013, March 25). “The real 'Today' Show is run by the unpopular bully Matt
Lauer”. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/03/today-show-matt-lauer-new-york-magazine/317015/
Associated Press. (2013, March 27). “NBC executive defends Matt Lauer”. Entertainment.
Retrieved from http://ew.com/article/2013/03/27/matt-lauer-today-nbc/
Huddleston, T. (2016, November 30). “Why NBC gave Matt Lauer a new $20 million contract”.
Fortune. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2016/11/30/nbc-today-matt-lauer-contract/
