14 DAY TRIAL // Matt Lauer has been on the receiving end of very bad press for months but criticism never got as bad as it is right now, when even some of the biggest media outlets have pointed a finger at him to say he’s the reason The Today ratings are on a downhill slope.
Believe it or not, but Lauer is reading his own press, both good and bad, the LA Times reports.
He also has a sense of humor about it which, I could say, is one of the few things still going on for him right now.
“If you’ve been following the papers lately, you know it’s been a bit rough for me. These days, I only get asked to host dinners if polio is busy. Yup, I have a lower Q rating than polio right now,” he said while hosting the UJA Federation of New York’s Broadcast Cable & Film Division event.
Then, when he introduced his former Today co-host Katie Couric, he joked once more about his career.
“Katie has a way of making headlines. Who can forget when she was co-host of the Today show? She got a colonoscopy on TV. Not to be outdone, two weeks ago, I got one in the New York Times,” he said.
The colonoscopy he’s alluding to is the scathing expose I also mentioned at the time, which identified him as the show’s biggest problem.