Ann Curry Pounds Matt Lauer In Ratings On One-Year Anniversary Of ‘Today’ Ouster
Congratulations Ann Curry! Your return to NBC on the one-year anniversary of your Today show ouster clocked bigger numbers than did Matt Lauer last week on his day with his exclusive Paula “I Is What I Is” Deen interview on the morning infotainment show. Ann Curry Reports: A Face In The Crowd, about the recipient of the most extensive face transplant to date, averaged 6 million viewers at 10 PM Friday, with 2.2 million of them 25-54 year olds — the hot blondes of news programming ad sales. Two days earlier, Lauer’s much-ballyhooed Today sit down with Deen to discuss her career-killing past use of a racial slur looks to have logged just under 5 million viewers, according to preliminary stats — 1.9 million of them in that important demo. (On Friday, hours before Curry’s appearance, Today averaged 4.4 million viewers — 1.7 million in the demo). Sure, there are a lot more Homes Using TV in primetime than in the early morning, giving Curry a certain edge. But that’s not her problem — she did not ask to be moved from early mornings to primetime. She got “promoted” out of Today back in June 2012, when Lauer kissed the top of her head and sent her packing.
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