Matt Lauer Almost Signed With ABC Before Ann Curry Was Fired, Used Rival Deal To Negotiate $25 Million Raise At NBC

Matt Lauer nearly signed a deal with ABC before resigning with NBC to remain host of the Today show.

Lauer got a $25 million-a-year raise and a four-day workweek for sticking with NBC, and he used the potential deal with ABC as the means to become the highest-paid morning show talent ever.

At ABC, Matt Lauer would have been a news personality and an occasional co-host of Katie Couric's talk show. Lauer would have also had an occasional role on Good Morning America.

Monday's issue of New York magazine said that all parties involved in Lauer's transition believed the deal was done at the time of Ann Curry's exit in July 2012.

The article stated that Chief of Disney Bob Iger was part of Lauer's ABC talks, because he wanted Lauer at ABC to topple Today from it's number-one spot in the morning ratings.

Lauer had been upset at a press leak that stated that Ryan Seacrest would possibly replace him as host on the Today show. Executives were reportedly afraid that Lauer would jump ship amid sinking ratings and frustration with co-host Ann Curry.  

"Lauer learned of the leak [about Seacrest] while being forced to stand outside the security gate at the White House Christmas party because Ann Curry had forgotten her driver's license," Joe Hagan wrote.

The New York Magazine article broke the Lauer - ABC story, reporting that Ryan Seacrest closer to being Lauer's replacement on the Today show than anyone expected.

NBC Executives attempted to reassure Lauer, saying that Seacrest was an insurance policy and that they didn't want Lauer to leave.

However, ABC executives thought the deal with Matt Lauer was a sure thing. Lauer and his manager allegedly had confirmed that he would move to ABC to work with long-time friend Katie Couric. The news would have devastated NBC and the Today audience, since Lauer was, and is, their number-one personality.

Prior to the New York magazine article's release, the story was forwarded throughout the NBC News offices, causing quite a stir.

One NBC News staffer who had been unaware of Lauer's talks with ABC said, "It hit like a ton of bricks. It was a rough day."

Interestingly, Curry wasn't the real cause of NBC's troubles, as Lauer and NBC executives thought.

SmithGeiger, a research company brought in to study the Today show, said that Lauer was less appealing than Curry. "He was looking aloof, a little bit holier-than-thou, and pompous. He was becoming Bryant Gumbel," a former NBC executive who viewed the reports told New York magazine.

It seems as though with or without Lauer, the Today show will continue to be trumped by its ABC competitor, Good Morning America.