So far, Comcast investors aren’t worried about losing the host of NBC’s long-running “Today” morning show.
Shares of NBC parent company Comcast jumped 4 percent on Wednesday morning to nearly $38 a share in the hours after NBC announced it had fired “Today” show host Matt Lauer for “”inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.”
NBC — which falls under the Comcast banner — has routinely won the coveted ages 25-54 demographic for its morning shows.
The 59-year-old Lauer had been with the “Today” show for 23 years, and co-hosted alongside Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and weatherman Al Roker.
Something Comcast investors were likely happy to shed: Lauer raked in a $25 million-a-year salary, according to Forbes.
The news was broken on-air by “Today” host Savannah Guthrie, who looked shaken. “I am heartbroken,” she said while sitting next to her colleague Hoda Kotb.
In a memo to employees sent early Wednesday, NBC News chairman Andy Lack said that he had received a “detailed complaint” from a staffer on Monday night about Lauer’s behavior in the workplace.
“It represented, after serious review a clear violation of our company’s standards,” Lack wrote. “While it is the first complaint about his behavior in the over 20 years he’s been at NBC News, we were also presented with reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.