14 DAY TRIAL // New details about Ann Curry’s sudden departure from NBC’s The Today Show have emerged – and they’re not likely to make Matt Lauer or the producers look any better for the way they handled everything.
Since Curry left the show, after just one year as co-host, there’s been much talk about how Lauer “got” her fired by using whatever leverage he had with producers.
“Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV,” written by New York Times reporter Brian Stelter, offers more details on the scheming that went on at NBC before she left, the LA Times reports.
Executive producer Jim Bell was the one who actually masterminded the plan, calling it “Operation Bambi,” because staff had a blast with jokes that getting Curry fired felt pretty much like shooting Bambi.
Moreover, the book also claims that Curry admitted her last days with the show was “professional torture,” because the staff (Lauer included) never missed the chance to mock and humiliate her.
“Bell created a blooper reel of Curry's on-camera mistakes and created a photo of Curry in a yellow dress alongside a picture of Big Bird asking the question, ‘Who wore it better?’ The book also says Bell denies these actions,” The LA Times writes.
“The excerpt also describes how Curry arrived at 30 Rockefeller Plaza one day last month without her ID and had to present herself to the security guard and had to spell her name,” adds the same media outlet.
As avid morning shows watchers must already know, NBC’s The Today Show has been dropping in the ratings since last summer, when Curry tearfully announced her departure as co-anchor.
Perhaps even more troubling is the fact that fingers are pointing at Lauer as the biggest problem, with some voices eve saying that The Today will continue in the ratings gutter until he leaves.