Yahoo Lifestyle Don Lemon Claims “Women Love” Matt Lauer & How He Thinks Fired ‘Today’ Host Could Return To Media: “The Public Misses Him”
Don Lemon is defending his friend Matt Lauer and shares how the former Today host could return to media after his firing from the NBC morning show.
The former CNN anchor revealed that he has seen the public’s reaction to Lauer and believes that he could stage a comeback.
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“I think that if he could come back to digital, he can set his own course,” Lemon said on the Hollywood Raw Podcast with Dax Holt and Adam Glyn.
“I only got to know Matt after, you know, the whole situation happened, because we live in the same town and we have mutual friends,” Lemon said. “Whenever I see Matt out and about — or you know, if we go out to dinner, my husband and I go out to dinner with him and his fiancée — and people love him.”
Lemon added, “Women love him! They’re like, ‘Man, oh my God, can I get a picture? I love you. I miss you on television.’ I think the public loves him. The public misses him, but it’s just the… it’s the people inside the business who are afraid.”
Lauer was fired by NBC News in 2017 following allegations of “inappropriate sexual behavior.” In 2019, Brooke Nevils went public with her story in Ronan Farrow’s book Catch and Kill, alleging Lauer raped her in a hotel room during the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Lauer said the encounter was consensual, and the allegations were “categorically false, ignores the facts, and defies common sense.”
On the allegations about Lauer, Lemon said, “I don’t know anything about what happened, I know nothing about that at all.”
Lemon noted that Lauer could return to the media in light of Donald Trump getting reelected as President of the United States, despite sexual assault allegations and being found liable for sexual abuse.
“Maybe in this whole Trump era, when canceled is over, maybe there is a way that he’ll come back,” Lemon said. “I think it’s more the people who are inside of the business who are concerned about, you know, what happened with Matt.”
He continued, “I’ll put it this way. I think the general public would accept Matt back. And I think people would watch him and I think the ratings would be great.”
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