Ann Curry ’tortured': Former “Today” anchor Ann Curry described the final months on the show as “professional torture,” according to a piece in the New York Times Magazine on Thursday.
Times reporter Brian Stelter, in a new book, “Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV,” described Curry’s experience while on NBC’s “Today.” She left the program last year and afterward, ratings for “Today” slid behind ABC’s “Good Morning America” for the first time in 15 years.
“Curry felt that the boys’ club atmosphere behind the scenes at Today undermined her from the start, and she told friends that her final months were a form of professional torture,” Stelter wrote. “One staff person recalled that ‘a lot of time in the control room was spent making fun of Ann’s outfit choices or just generally messing with her.’”
Behind the scenes, she was “hurt and humiliated” during her final months there, Stelter wrote. She also told friends and family that male co-workers were intentionally mean to her.
NBC also allegedly made a blooper reel of Curry, making fun of her errors while on the show. They also moved boxes of her belongings into a coat closet as if she was kicked out already, the book said.
Her co-host, Matt Lauer, also was not impressed with her. “I can’t believe I am sitting next to this woman,” he allegedly said.
Lauer has been under fire over the past several months, with reports suggesting that he might be next to leave the program.
A lengthy article from New York magazine said Lauer was in talks to join ABC last year but he shot it down.
A report in late March said that Anderson Cooper and NBC were in talks for the CNN anchor joining “Today.”
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