NBC Olympic Coverage: Who Will Fill In For Matt Lauer After Firing?

Less than three months ahead of the opening ceremonies of the 2018 Olympic games in PyeongChang, South Korea, NBC fired one of its hosts. Matt Lauer, a prominent face in Olympic coverage, was let go after allegations of sexual assault were brought to the company's attention, according to a statement from NBC News Chairman Andy Lack.

The statement was announced on the Today show Wednesday morning by Lauer’s usual co-host, Savannah Guthrie. After reading Lack’s statement Guthrie said, “We’re processing it with all of you and we promise to be transparent and be straightforward and continue this important conversation.”

Lauer traditionally hosts the opening ceremonies of the Olympic games on NBC and then covers some events throughout the duration of the games. The incident that prompted Lauer’s firing allegedly took place during the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, Page Six reported. Lauer filled in for Bob Costas during the Sochi games while Costas was out with an eye infection.

But Lack’s statement did not confirm whether or not the incident did take place during the 2014 games.

“Dear Colleagues, On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer," Lack said. "It represented, after a serious review, a clear violation of our company’s standards. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment. 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…”

Further details about the incident were not available Wednesday morning.

NBC had not yet announced its lineup of hosts for the upcoming winter games so it’s unclear how much coverage Lauer was expected to take on for NBC before his firing. The games were scheduled to begin Thursday, Feb. 8 and continue through the 25th of the month, with opening ceremonies on the 9th.

NBC had not yet released a statement on who would be replacing Lauer for the Olympics but the network usually sends more than 100 people to cover the events, meaning there will be plenty of others hosts to fill in. The last opening ceremonies, for the 2016 summer games in Rio de Janeiro, were hosted by Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Hoda Kotb. Guthrie did not attend the Rio games because she was pregnant at the time and the Zika virus was a health concern. When she announced that she wouldn’t be attending the games in Rio live during a Today segment, she said, “You’re going to have to go to female beach volleyball without me Matt, try to carry on!”

International Business Times reached out to NBC about Olympic coverage but had not yet received a response.