Don Lemon Wants Matt Lauer Back on TV: ‘Women Love Him’

Martin Holmes January 24, 2025, 9:06 am

Don Lemon and Matt Lauer — Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for RFK Ripple Of Hope; Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Don Lemon has gone to bat for his friend and former Today host Matt Lauer, claiming that “women love him” and the “general public would accept [him] back” on television.

The former CNN anchor talked about Lauer on a recent episode of the Hollywood Raw Podcast with Dax Holt and Adam Glyn, where he said if the former NBC News anchor came “back to digital,” he could “set his own course” for returning to the media.

Lauer joined NBC in 1992 as the co-anchor of the early weekday news show Today in New York before joining the Today show full-time in 1994. NBC News terminated Lauer’s contract in November 2017 after an unidentified female NBC employee accused him of sexually harassing her during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The accuser was later revealed as former NBC News producer Brooke Nevils, who went public with her story in 2019 in Ronan Farrow’s book Catch and Kill. She alleged Lauer raped her in a hotel during the 2014 Winter Olympics. Lauer denied the accusation, claiming the encounter was consensual and the allegations were “categorically false, ignores the facts, and defies common sense.”

Speaking on the allegations, Lemon said, “I don’t know anything about what happened, I know nothing about that at all.”

He added, “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. 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.”

“Women love him!” Lemon continued. “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.”

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Lemon himself was fired from CNN in April 2023, just months after making controversial comments on-air about women “in their prime.” This was followed by a Variety exposé, which detailed his “diva-like” behavior on set and alleged mistreatment of female colleagues.

The veteran host later apologized for his comments and “agreed to participate in formal training.” However, CNN decided to let him go just weeks later, with The Wrap reporting that the network and Lemon reached a separation deal worth approximately $24.5 million.

On the Hollywood Raw Podcast, Lemon said in this “whole Trump era,” where a convicted felon with sexual assault allegations can become President, maybe there is a way for Lauer to stage a comeback.

“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.”

“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,” he concluded.