Celebrity News

Matt Lauer blames Ann Curry exit on NBC

Matt Lauer has finally spoken up about the disastrous departure of his ex-colleague, Ann Curry – and he’s firmly putting the blame on “Today” show brass.

In a move to shift the blame away from himself, “I don’t think the show and the network handled the transition well,” he said to the Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz.”You don’t have to be Einstein to know that. It clearly did not help us.”

“We were seen as a family, and we didn’t handle a family matter well,” he said.

Amid sagging ratings and some of the worst publicity in “Today” history, the report seems to be an effort to lift some of the negative press directed towards the lead anchor, who was widely blamed for Curry’s brutal beheading.

Curry was abruptly fired from her co-anchor job after a year and replaced by Savannah Guthrie. Despite his silence on the matter until now, Lauer amazingly now insists he actually lobbied to keep Curry from the axe.

“He was quietly and publicly a supporter of Ann’s throughout the entire process,” Steve Capus, the former NBC News president, said in defense of his colleague. “It is unfair that Matt has shouldered an undue amount of blame for a decision he disagreed with.”

Lauer even claims he offered to step down from his position.

NBC executive Steve Burke recalled Lauer telling him, “If you think the show’s better off without me, let me know, and I’ll get out of the way.”

However, Lauer does admit that before Curry even started the job, he contacted Couric about returning to “Today.” Couric was reportedly interested, but ended up teaming up with ABC instead.

And he describes how, before she was fired, he took Curry for lunch and told her he initially didn’t want her as co-anchor, acknowledging she “hadn’t been his first choice for co-host….he also advised Curry, who didn’t employ an agent, to hire one quickly.”

Despite the criticism, and admitting, “The show got a little dour and depressing and dark,” Lauer called himself “the luckiest guy I know,” and vowed he’s “not going to whine or get depressed” about his show’s continued battle with “Good Morning America.”

“Who’s going to feel sorry for me? Nobody,” he said. “In some ways being No. 2 in the ratings is a real shot in the arm, a kick in the pants.”

Lauer’s damage control piece has already started a backlash online, with one commentator accusing the writer of “stepping easily into the role of network flack.” The Atlantic Wire described the piece as, “A scene of faux sword-falling, that amounts to Lauer, who had apparently been feeling bad about being cast as the bad guy (again and again) amidst Curry’s ouster, doing his best Charlie Brown impersonation… Matt Lauer is a nice guy, America, and he wants his ratings back.”