The rumor mill ran wild today that Matt Lauer would be fired from his “Today” show post amid sagging ratings.
A “show insider” claimed to RadarOnline that new “Today” head Alexandra Wallace has told her NBC bosses she will have to “replace Matt if the ratings continue to tank.”
We asked Wallace herself to weigh in on the report…and she says it is blatantly false.
“There is absolutely no truth to this,” Wallace tells Page Six. “There have been some recent outrageous claims regarding Matt and the ‘Today’ show, and an awful lot of piling on from nameless, faceless sources. These stories are wrong and irresponsible.”
Show insiders also tell us that “Today” has been winning in the key demographic in the ratings and won the demo ratings last week.
Lauer has become a prime fan target in light of “Good Morning America’s” resurgence to No. 1 and the wildly unpopular dumping of Ann Curry this past summer.
NBC News President Steve Capus recently came to Lauer’s defense, saying the big-money host doesn’t deserve blame for “Today’s” ratings collapse.
“Sadly,” Capus told The Daily Beast, “this is the era in which we live: Venomous tweets somehow threaten to drown out all of those who praised Matt for his coverage.”