Lauer, Keillor fired over misconduct allegations
NEW YORK — Today show host Matt Lauer was fired for what NBC on Wednesday called “inappropriate sexual behaviour” with a colleague and was promptly confronted with a published report accusing him of crude and habitual misconduct with other women around the office.
With his easygoing charm, Lauer has long been a lucrative and highly visible part of NBC News and one of the highest-paid figures in the industry, and his downfall shook the network and stunned many of the roughly four million viewers who start their day with him.
He is easily one of the biggest names brought down in recent weeks by the wave of sexual misconduct allegations that have swept through Hollywood, the media and politics.
Network news chief Andrew Lack said in a memo to the staff that NBC received a complaint about Lauer’s behaviour on Monday and determined he violated company standards. NBC said the misconduct started when Lauer and a network employee were at the Sochi Olympics in 2014 and continued beyond that assignment.
Lack said it was the first complaint lodged against Lauer in his 20 years at NBC, but “we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”
It was left to Lauer’s shaken Today colleagues, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, to break the news to viewers at the top of Wednesday morning’s show.
Hours after the firing, the trade publication Variety posted what it said was a two-month investigation that included dozens of interviews with current and former staffers who asked to remain anonymous.
Among other things, Variety reported allegations that Lauer once gave a colleague a sex toy with an explicit note about how he wanted to use it on her; that he exposed himself to another female co-worker; that he would question female producers about their sex lives; and that he would talk about which co-hosts he would like to sleep with.
Messages to Lauer and his agent were not immediately returned, and NBC would not say whether he denied or admitted to any wrongdoing. He is married with three children.
Lauer becomes the second morning host in a week to lose his job over sexual misconduct allegations. CBS fired Charlie Rose after several women who worked for him complained about his behaviour.
In other developments, former Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor was cut loose by Minnesota Public Radio over an allegation of “inappropriate behaviour.” MPR gave no details, but the 75-year-old Keillor said he inadvertently put his hand on a woman’s bare back in an attempt to console her.
And an executive producer for several Vancouver-shot superhero shows has been fired following a “thorough investigation” into allegations of sexual harassment against him.
Warner Bros. Television Group says it has terminated Andrew Kreisberg’s employment, effective immediately, and is “committed to providing a safe working environment for our employees and everyone involved in our productions.”
Kreisberg had been suspended from his work on Arrow, Supergirl, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow amid accusations of sexual harassment and inappropriate touching made by 19 former and current employees.
He joins a lengthening list of media figures felled by sexual misconduct accusations this year. Besides Rose, they include Lauer’s NBC News colleague Mark Halperin, Fox News primetime host Bill O’Reilly and National Public Radio newsroom chief Michael Oreskes. The New York Times suspended White House correspondent Glenn Thrush last week.