Don Lemon claims disgraced ex-NBC star Matt Lauer is still beloved by women and is calling for the accused-sex pest former Today host to make a TV comeback.
‘Whenever I see Matt out and about… if we go out to dinner my husband and I go out to dinner with him and his fiancée… people love him. Women love him,’ Lemon told The Hollywood Raw podcast earlier this week.
‘They’re like, “Man – oh my God – can I get a picture? I love you. I miss you on television. Blah blah blah,’ Lemon, a former CNN star, continued.
‘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,’ Lemon, 58, insisted.
But Lemon has a plan to revive Lauer’s career. ‘I think that if he could come back to digital, he can set his own course,’ he told hosts Dax Holt and Adam Glyn.
Lemon said he only made friends with Lauer after he was fired by Today in 2017, accused of sexually harassing female staffers.
Lauer’s sudden firing was one of the biggest scandals to ever rock daytime TV in the US, with the host exiled into showbiz Siberia after he was accused of sexually exploiting multiple women.
The scandal-hit pair both live in the Hamptons, with Lemon fired by CNN in 2023 after a series of scandals including a claim that women over 40 are past their prime.
Lemon and Lauer are such good friends that Lauer and his fiancée, Shamin Abas, attended Lemon’s wedding to husband Tim Malone in April 2024.
Don Lemon on Tuesday floated the idea of a comeback for friend Matt Lauer – following the anchor’s firing for sex with female staffers under him
The scandal erupted a little over seven years ago, following a complaint over the longtime Today host’s workplace behavior. He’s seen here with fiancée Shamin Abas at Lemon’s New York City wedding in April 2024
Lemon says Trump’s second presidency may indicate that cancel culture is receding, meaning disgraced stars like Lauer could return to the limelight.
‘Maybe with this whole “Trump era”, when, you know, cancelling is “over” – I don’t know, maybe,’ he said of the chances of Lauer again being beamed into American households.
‘Maybe there is a chance that he’ll come back,’ Lemon continued.
‘But I think it’s more of the people who are inside of the business who who are concerned about – you know – what happened with Matt I think.’
‘I’ll put it this way,’ Lemon at this point said, as the podcasters looked on.
‘I think the general public would accept Matt back and I think people would watch him. And I think the ratings would be great.’
Asked why Lauer has not started a YouTube channel over the past seven years like many of his contemporaries, Lemon said that only Lauer ‘could answer that.’
After Glyn brought up how he grew up watching Lauer and felt he was great at his job, Lemon launched another rant in support for the confirmed sex pest.
‘Let me say this – there are certain people who are meant to do what they are doing. Do you know what I mean? Who are just really, really good at it.
‘There are certain people who are on television where you feel like, well, “That’s exactly what they should be doing,”‘ Lemon told hosts Dax Holt and Adam Glyn on their podcast
‘I think that if he could come back to digital, he can set his own course,’ he said, pondering Lauer’s potential for podcasting. Lauer manned the Today desk for more than 20 years
‘There are certain people who are on television where you feel like, well, “That’s exactly what they should be doing.”
‘Matt was,’ Lemon concluded. ‘He was what you wanted to see in the morning.’
The also-disgraced talker went on to compare the Today figure to chat show host Wendy Williams, who Lemon says occupies the same upper echelon of natural broadcasting ability.
Williams, 60, was diagnosed in 2023 with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, months after too being taken off the air.
‘You know, the talent of be able to sit there and just talk into a camera by herself,’ he said, adding how even Lauer ‘had a co-host.’
‘But someone like Wendy Williams, who didn’t have a co-host, she would sit there and talking to the camera for her first what 30 minutes of the show.’
Perhaps harking back to his own experiences, he added ‘I mean, it’s not easy.’
Lemon then proclaimed that he’s ‘not promoting anything.’
‘You guys ask me a question – I told you [how I feel.]’
He ended by categorizing 2017, the year in which Lauer was fired, as ‘an era where people were just kind of getting canceled right and left.
‘And I think it was an internal issue and at the end of the day.
Lauer’s management, at the time, said they were ‘deeply saddened by this turn of events’ that led to the star’s firing. Two days later, it emerged the company received two more complaints, with others surfacing later on.