6 Biggest ‘Today’ Scandals, From an Infamous Memo to a Racism Uproar

NBC’s Today has been all over the news lately, through no fault of anyone working at Studio 1A. Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, has been missing since February 1, and Savannah only recently returned to her spot at the anchor desk alongside Craig Melvin as the investigation continues.

However, at various points over the years, Today has made headlines for reasons that were entirely the fault of the morning show’s staff. Here, in chronological order, are the rough moments we consider Today’s biggest scandals.

1989: Bryant Gumbel’s memo about his colleagues

Workplace politics at Today became public knowledge in March 1989 when the press published choice words from a memo that Bryant Gumbel, then a co-anchor at the morning show, sent to then-executive producer Marty Ryan.

In the memo, Gumbel blasted many of his colleagues at the time, saying weatherman Willard Scott “holds the show hostage to his assortment of whims, wishes, birthdays and bad taste,” critic Gene Shalit’s reviews were “often late” and his interviews with celebrities were “[not] very good,” and consumer reporter David Horowitz was “a walking cliché,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Shalit, for his part, seemed unfazed, saying that Gumbel’s memo was “old news” and written at a different time in both Gumbel’s life and the show’s. “They’re not big whacks,” Shalit said of Gumbel’s unflattering assessments of him. “Listen, I’ve been interviewing people on the show for 17 years. I must be doing something right.”

A year later, in an interview with Barbara Walters, Gumbel said that he regretted “[using] language that probably was more colorful and more provocative than it needed to be” and that he and Scott “shed a lot of tears over the phone” when they discussed the memo, per the Tampa Bay Times.

1989: Deborah Norville’s succession of Jane Pauley

Jane Pauley clarified in a 2024 TVNewser interview that it was her choice to leave Today in December 1989 after 13 years of co-anchoring, and she even offered to help welcome her successor, an offer NBC declined. And when viewers saw younger upstart Deborah Norville join Today as news anchor ahead of Pauley’s exit, the All About Eve comparisons started. Viewers and media pundits thought Norville was stealing Pauley’s job, and network brass forbade both women from correcting the narrative.

“NBC told me, ‘Do not speak to the press,’” Norville told TVNewser. “I was between a rock and a hard place with no choice. I had to be quiet.”

“It inevitably cast her in an unfortunate light,” Pauley said of the mishandled handoff’s impact on Norville, whom she described as capable and ambitious.

Amid the bad press, viewers migrated from Today to rival Good Morning America, and Norville’s tenure as co-anchor lasted a little more than a year. Norville took maternity leave from Today in February 1991, and executives replaced her with Katie Couric.

2012: Ann Curry’s ouster

Similarly, Ann Curry was only a Today co-anchor for a year before she abruptly her departure from the show in June 2012. And in the book Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV (via Intelligencer), media reporter Brian Stelter reported that then-Today EP Jim Bell hatched a plan dubbed “Operation Bambi” to replace Curry with Savannah Guthrie. (Bell denied using the term “Operation Bambi,” Stelter added.)

Later, Gayle King asked Curry about speculation that Matt Lauer derailed her career. “I don’t know what was all behind it,” the former Today star said, per Time. “I do know that it hurt like hell.”

And in light of Lauer’s firing — detailed below — Curry said, “I would be surprised if many women did not understand that there was a climate of verbal harassment that existed.”

2016: Billy Bush’s firing over Access Hollywood tape

In October 2016, the press got hold of a bombshell tape from Billy Bush’s time on Access Hollywood, a recording in which Bush can be heard laughing along with and egging on Donald Trump as the then–Apprentice star made offensive comments about kissing and groping women without their consent.

“Obviously, I’m embarrassed and ashamed,” Bush said in a statement after the audio leaked, according to The New York Times. “It’s no excuse, but this happened 11 years ago — I was younger, less mature, and acted foolishly in playing along.”

At the time, Bush was weeks into his job co-hosting Today’s 9a/8c hour. Days after the Access Hollywood tape made headlines, NBC News fired him.

2017: Matt Lauer’s firing over sexual misconduct allegations

NBC News fired longtime Today co-anchor Matt Lauer in November 2017 after a female colleague accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior during the 2014 Sochi Olympics and in the workplace afterward, as the news organization reported at the time. Two other accusers came forward later, NBC News added, and Variety reported that three women had come forward to allege Lauer had sexually harassed them.

Lauer said in a statement that some of the allegations were “untrue or mischaracterized” but that there was “enough truth in these stories to make [him] feel embarrassed and ashamed.”

Weeks later, former Today staffer Addie Zinone said on Megyn Kelly Today that she and Lauer had a “consensual” sexual relationship that she called an abuse of power. “I want to put a face and a story to these women’s accusations because I’m seeing that they’re being doubted, and I have to validate their claims,” she said.

2018: Megyn Kelly’s comments about blackface

Megyn Kelly’s time hosting the third hour of Today, then called Megyn Kelly Today — and her time at NBC News in general — came to an abrupt end after an October 2018 episode in which she defended the use of blackface in Halloween costumes.

Related

How 'Today' Has Dealt With Its Hosts' Tragedies On Air

In that segment, Kelly was addressing Luann de Lesseps, a white reality star, dressing up as Diana Ross, a Black singer. “Truly, you do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface on Halloween or a Black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. When I was a kid, that was OK as long as you were dressing up as a character.”

Amid the resulting backlash — and calls for an apology from Today meteorologist Al Roker — Kelly expressed her remorse on air. “I’m sorry,” she told viewers, in part. “I learned that given the history of blackface being used in awful ways by racists in this country, it is not OK for that to be part of any costume, Halloween or otherwise.”