The most famous former hosts of the Today Show and their departure: from Katie Couric to Matt Lauer

The late Barbara Walters was a milestone in interview culture and broadcast television. She joined NBC News in 1961, was promoted to one of the “Today Girls” and eventually anchored the main show alongside Jim Hartz in 1974.

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Thanks to a lucrative $5 million contract, she left the station in 1976 and moved to competitor ABC, where she continued to build her illustrious career. She began by becoming the first woman to co-anchor a U.S. morning news program. Today. She died in 2022 at the age of 93.

Barbara’s successor was Jane Pauley, now 73, who hosted the show from 1976 to 1989, first with Tom Brokaw and then with Bryant Gumbel. In her final year, however, Deborah Norville reportedly joined because NBC wanted to drop her from the program in favor of the younger host.

Jane asked to be released early from her contract to spend time with her three children, but NBC reportedly refused. In 1989, she announced her departure and received a wave of support (and a huge ratings drop) in response. She stayed with NBC News until 2003 and has been the anchor of CBS Sunday Morning.

Deborah, now 65, was born Today She was a newsreader in 1989 before being appointed presenter in 1990. Unfortunately, the audience’s negative reaction to this move proved her undoing, with many unhappy with how suddenly Jane’s tenure ended and Deborah was caught in the crossfire.

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In 1991, she went on maternity leave and never returned to the show. Since then, she has been a bestselling author and, most notably, the host of the CBS news magazine Inside Editiona position she has held since 1995.

In 1982, he was hired as a presenter for NBC Sports. Bryant Gumbelnow 75, would be promoted to co-host of Today with Jane, which he held until 1997, with his 15 years representing the third longest tenure in the position. He was a fan favorite and won several Emmys for his work.

He left the network to pursue other projects, primarily working with CBS, but is now best known for his HBO investigative series. Real Sports with Bryant Gumbelwhich he hosted from 1995 to 2023. The show received great acclaim and earned him a Peabody Award in 2012.

Deborah’s successor was Katie Couricnow 67, one of the leading women in news. She served as co-anchor from 1991 to 2006, becoming one of the most recognized news anchors in the world (and also winning a Peabody Award) and was the second longest-tenured anchor.

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She left the company in 2006 to join CBS and become the new editor-in-chief of CBS Evening News. Katie was also instrumental in 60 minutes before moving to ABC News and Yahoo! News. She has since returned to Today several times and also founded her own media company, Katie Couric Media.

After Katie’s departure in 2006, it was announced that Meredith Vieira, now 70, would take over her position. She thus left her role as one of the presenters on The viewa position she held since 1997 (she was co-host with Barbara Walters).

She held this role until 2011 and also hosted the game show Who wants to be a millionairee. However, Meredith stayed with NBC for years after her departure and is now best known as the host of the game show 25 words or less since 2019. She was replaced by Ann Curry for a year before Savannah was promoted to the role in 2012.

Matt Lauer first made a name for himself as Today news anchor in 1994 before being promoted to main anchor in 1997, a position he held until 2017. His tenure remains the longest in the show’s history.

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In 2017, the now 66-year-old was quickly fired from the NBC news program after several allegations of sexual misconduct were made public. He was immediately replaced by Hoda, who was officially named co-host in early 2018. Matt has since retreated from the spotlight and also quietly divorced Annette Roque in 2019.