‘Today Show’: Could Anderson Cooper really replace Matt Lauer?

Despite having a daytime talk show that has already been canceled in the past year, Anderson Cooper continues to remain one of the hottest properties in the industry. We’ve already told you a little bit about the pilot that he filmed recently with Kathy Griffin for CNN, and there have also been rumors about him being a potential candidate to host “Jeopardy!” after Alex Trebek retires at the end of his current contract (which is not necessarily a certainty yet).

So what’s happening next? Odds are, you may have heard the rumors this week about him being potentially hired to become the replacement for Matt Lauer at “The Today Show.” The controversy surrounding these claims is not so much the notion that folks are interested in Lauer, but rather whether or not Matt Lauer is really okay with it.

If you listen to Deadline, their sources claim that Lauer was actually not cool with this idea at all, and that he actually vocalized this to Cooper himself upon hearing of the gossip for the first time. However, TMZ reports that this conversation never happened, and Lauer would be fine with Cooper replacing him at some point should it ever come to that.

The only thing that we know for certain is that NBC better get on the ball when it comes to making some decisions soon. The last thing you want for your viewers is uncertainty: just like no one wants to watch a show if they believe that it is about to be canceled, few want to get invested in a morning TV host if they know that they could leave at any moment.

What do you think: would Anderson be a good replacement? If you want to read a little bit more news about the NBC saga courtesy of Brian Williams, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: NBC