Today

Background:

Daytime Emmy Award winning television personality Matt Lauer is famous as a co-host of NBC's “The Today Show,” from which he shared a 2007 Daytime Emmy Award. The graduate of Ohio University began his career with the news program in 1994 as a news anchor and moved on to become co-anchor in 1997. With “Today” for over a decade, Lauer has interviewed a number of famous people, including President George W. Bush, John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and has contributed to the coverage of live events and news stories for the network. A co-host since 1998, he picked up a Daytime Emmy Award for 2003's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The 2000 nominee for TV Guide's “Favorite News Personality” and one of People magazine's “50 Most Beautiful People in the World” in 1997, Lauer has broadcasted live from locations all over the world for “Where in the World is Matt Lauer?” since 1998. The program has become one of hallmark series on “The Today Show.”

Prior to joining “Today,” Lauer was co-anchor on “Today in New York” from 1992 to 1994 and “News Channel 4/Live at Five” from 1993 to 1996. He hosted WWOR-TV's “9 Broadcast Plaza” from 1989 to 1991 and “PM Magazine” from 1980 to 1986. He launched his reporting career in the late 1970s as producer for the West Virginia-based WOWK-TV noon news program.

Lauer was married to first wife Nancy Alspaugh from 1981 to 1988 and married Annette Roque in 1998. Lauer and Annette have three children together. In between the marriages, Lauer had a romance with television newscaster Kristen Gesswein. Talking about his marriage to Annette, Lauer said, “We got married in a church and when I go to churches and temples, I do feel something. I'm happy to be there. The minister who married us said he considers churches high places, elevated. I agree.”

Family Man

Childhood and Family:

Matt Lauer was born Matthew Todd Lauer on December 30, 1957, in New York City, New York, to parents Marilyn, a boutique owner and former model, and Robert Lauer. They divorced when he was still young. Matt's father, who was an executive at a bicycle-company, passed away in 1997 of cancer. Matt was the grandson of Art Gentry, who was well-known as one fourth of the vaudeville group The Four Eton Boys, and has an older sister named April Lauer Stone (born in 1953).

Growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, Matt moved to Athens in 1975 to attend Ohio University where he majored in communications. However, only four credits away from a degree in 1979, he left school to chase a career in journalism. Matt did not return to the university until eighteen years later when he decided to complete his degree.

Matt married television producer Nancy Alspaugh in 1981, but they divorced in 1988. The marriage produced no children. Matt married model Annette Roque on October 3, 1998. The father of 3, Matt welcomed his first child, son Jack Matthew Lauer, on June 26, 2001. Daughter Romy Lauer was born on October 2, 2003, and his second son was born on November 28, 2006. When his wife was pregnant with their third child, in 2006, Matt and Annette became estranged and in September, his wife filed for divorce. They reconciled and currently reside in New York City.

Where in the World is Matt Lauer?

Career:

A communications scholar at Ohio University, Matt Lauer left his studies in 1979 to begin his television career with WOWK-TV in West Virginia. He was hired as a producer of the12 o'clock news program. Within a year, the New York native had made his debut as an on-air reporter on the station's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. Lauer then traveled around the country to advance his career. He hosted weekly information and talk programs in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, and Richmond. He was also a host of “PM Magazine” from 1980 to 1986 and once joined ESPN as their sideline reporter.

Back in New York, Lauer experienced his first taste with fame when he landed a hosting gig on “9 Broadcast Plaza,” a daily, live, three-hour interview program at WWOR-TV. He worked there from 1989 to 1991. Thanks to his casual manner, Lauer caught the attention of NBC and was recruited to co-anchor “Today in New York,” an early morning newscast for the NBC New York-based WNBC-TV in September 1992. He stayed with the show until September 1994. After a year on “Today in New York,” he co-anchored the early evening newscast “News Channel 4/Live at Five,” a post he kept from August 1993 until September 1996.

A prevailing host for NBC specials, Lauer's career earned a significant boost when he became a permanent news anchor on the network's esteemed “Today Show” in early 1994. After three years, he was appointed co-anchor, opposite Katie Couric. Lauer replaced Bryant Gumbel after he left the show in 1997. In 2007, Lauer co-won a Daytime Emmy for Excellence in Morning Programming for his work on “Today.” A year before the success, he signed a multi-million dollar contract to stay with the show until 2011.

Lauer has done many interesting interviews since joining NBC News, including exclusive interviews with two people related to the Scott Peterson investigation, the first interview with First Lady Hillary Clinton after the widely-published Monica Lewinsky scandal, and a 20-minute interview and tour with George Bush in Texas. He also interviewed ex-prisoner of war and Arizona state senator John McCain, President George W. Bush, Osama Bin Laden’s half brother, Yeslan Bin Laden, new Yankee Alex Rodriguez, filmmaker Michael Moore and the Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, among others. In 2003, Lauer was sent to Qatar to give live reports on the war. Other special events he has covered include the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, the 2004 funeral of President Ronald Reagan and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which he has co-hosted since 1998. The latter brought him a 2004 Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Special.

Since 1998, Lauer has hosted “Where in the World is Matt Lauer,” which has sent Lauer to remote locations around the globe. Lauer has also hosted “The Greatest American” on the Discovery Channel.

Awards:

• Daytime Emmy: Excellence in Morning Programming, “Today,” 2007

• Daytime Emmy: Outstanding Special Class Special, “Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,” 2004