Former half-term Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin co-hosted the Today Show today (as part of the NBC's program to counter Katie Couric's stint on Good Morning, America). The show spoofed her love of printed media and also showed her "taking over" Matt Lauer's dressing room. How come Bob Dole never got a gig like this? more ›

When Good Morning America announced that Katie Couric would "sub" in for GMA anchor Robin Roberts this week, the Today Show went into overdrive to respond. The reigning morning show teased that there would be a Today Show legend today (it turned out to be... Meredith Vieira) AND that Sarah Palin would co-host tomorrow. more ›

Christie Brinkley is back in Chicago next month for an encore performance as the killer Roxy Hart, and to get the media rolling she stopped by Today for a chat with Matt Lauer this morning. But instead of talking about all that jazz, things got heavy quick when the subject of her still-bitter-four-years-later divorce with porn-addicted, assistant-boinking architect Peter Cook came up at the start. The one upside to an incredibly uncomfortable interview? Even while crying, the original Uptown Girl looks really good at 58. more ›

Karilyn Bales, wife of Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, spoke to Today's Matt Lauer about her husband's alleged massacre of 17 Afghan villagers. In an interview broadcast this morning, she talks about how she first heard of the shooting while she was grocery shopping, and she firmly maintains her husband is innocent. more ›

Seacrest... in? It's possible that a new generation will grow up with Ryan Seacrest as their Matt Lauer. According to the Wall Street Journal, Seacrest may be the Today show host's successor, if Lauer ends up leaving next year. Some top execs at the network just met with the 36-year-old, who was first really thrust into the spotlight back in 2002, thanks to American Idol. more ›

A visibly emotional Meredith Vieira announced this morning that she is officially leaving her position as co-anchor of NBC's top-ranked Today show, a job she has held for the past five years. "I'm going to try to hold myself together here—but after months of personal reflection and private conversations with my friends and family, I've decided to leave Today in June," she said while fighting back tears. But what will become of her co-anchor, Matt Lauer, recently rumored to be reuniting with free agent Katie Couric? more ›

Two days after a rumor that Meredith Vieira will leave the Today Show this year, another one popped up about Matt Lauer leaving the show when his contract is up at the end of the year! But TMZ claims that Lauer is just taking advantage of NBC's desperation to keep the top morning talk show team in place and wants $25 million/year, up from his current $17 million/year. more ›

While there are rumors about Katie Couric's post-CBS News moves, now there may be a shift at her old program, the Today show. According to TV Guide, Meredith Vieira "has been in discussions with NBC News executives for several months about extending her deal, which is up in September. But the co-anchor is said to be weary of the demanding early morning hours and is ready to move on. Vieira has often said that the health of her husband, who has battled multiple sclerosis and cancer, will be a factor in considering her future on the program." more ›

Kanye West's headlines went into syndication this week, as news outlets revisited Taylor-Swift-gate and Bush-Doesn't-Care-About-Black-People-gate (yes, those things happened long ago). One of the reporters West found himself across from was Matt Lauer on the Today show, where he didn't like the way things were being run. According to the NY Times, he taped the interview with Lauer, then preemptively criticized the program on Twitter. more ›

Transportation Alternatives asked the Today Show's Matt Lauer, Meredith Vieira and Al Roker to participate in the Commuter Challenge—and they agreed! In a segment that aired this morning (it was taped last week), you can see Al ride his bike, Meredith take a car, and Matt hop on a subway to Rockefeller Plaza from West 72nd Street and Broadway. more ›

The two Westchester sisters who lost both a father and a brother in the deadly Taconic crash were interviewed for the first time this morning on . The daughters of Michael Bastardi, sisters of Guy, spoke about learning of the tragic accident and their feelings on the revelations that Diane Schuler was drunk and high. Rosemary Guzzo told Matt Lauer, "This didn't have to happen. She had a choice and she made a choice." more ›

Matt Lauer gave it the old college try with Caroline Kennedy today, using her appearance on the Today Show (to plug the Kennedy Profiles in Courage awards) as a chance to solve the ongoing mystery over why she dropped her bid to occupy Hillary Clinton's vacated Senate seat. A Vanity Fair excerpt of the forthcoming book Ted Kennedy: The Dream That Never Died cited an unnamed "family adviser's" assertion that Kennedy's children had intervened and begged her to drop her campaign, telling her "that if she was getting this worked up just getting the job, they didn't want to see what she would be like in the trenches of a political campaign or a fight in Washington." more ›

Lately, former governor Eliot Spitzer has been edging back into the public eye, perhaps beckoned by the siren song of public unhappiness with financial firms. He was, after all, the "Sheriff of Wall Street" during his Attorney General days, so he's parlayed that into a column for Slate, a Washington Post editorial, an appearance on Fareed Zakaria's CNN show and now a one-on-one with Matt Lauer on the Today Show. more ›

Investors who lost their money when they entrusted it to Bernie Madoff are likely to get "pennies on the dollar, if that," according to Stuart Gerson, a lawyer with the national firm Epstein Becker & Green. Experts say that most of this year will be spent tracing Madoff's funds and accounts and that it may up to three years before victim's of his Ponzi scheme begin to received anything. Investors and creditors of Enron, which fell in 2001, were still receiving payments last year. Those with money behind that fallen corporation, possibly Madoff's only rival in financial infamy this decade, received up to 50 cents on the dollar. But while Enron owned businesses with assets that could be liquidated, Madoff's money managing firm has very little in the way of tangible items attached to it. The only person whose furor at Madoff right now might be a notch below his investors is Matt Lauer, Maddoff's neighbor in his Park Avenue building who Radar reports is being driven "bonkers" with all of the attention, yelling at photographers and is "fearful for his kids." more ›

The Today show aired another part of Matt Lauer's interview with Alaska Governor and Sarah Palin. This one includes Lauer asking about Palin's infamous interview with Katie Couric and whether she think President-elect Obama can handle the crisis in Iraq. Yesterday's interview (video after the jump) had Palin discussing the rumors about the $150,000 wardrobe and why the McCain-Palin ticket lost, "I think the economic collapse had a heckuva lot more to do with the campaign's collapse than me personally." more ›

Matt Lauer proved himself once again to have one of the best senses of humor of any TV journalist during his friar's club roast yesterday to benefit arts education and a new journalism scholarship in memory of Tim Russert. But all of the headlines today were swept up by the visit Lauer got from the man on the other end of one of his tensest on-air moments, Tom Cruise. more ›

First NBC announces it's starting a 24-hour local NYC news channel yesterday--a possible competitor to NY1-- and now Matt Lauer is invading the turf of NYC TV's Kelly Choi by heading to the "secret subway station" under the Waldorf-Astoria! more ›

This morning, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama appeared on the Today show, an early morning pre-primary day media blitz, as it were. While it's unclear which Democratic presidential candidate will be victorious this fall, one thing was clear: Obama kept calling Matt Lauer "Tim." more ›

The NYC Medical Examiner's office says Heath Ledger's autopsy is inconclusive, citing the need to more tests. Spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said, "The autopsy is inconclusive and we have to do further testing which includes toxicology and tissue testing. We expect to have results in about 10 days to two weeks." more ›

To plug the giant hole in the network’s schedule this Sunday, caused by the WGA not giving a waiver to Dick Clark Productions for the Golden Globe Awards, NBC has handed the whole thing over to its news division. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an injured firefighter at Ave Y and Knapp St. in Brooklyn, serious trauma at the Bryant Park ice rink in Manhattan, and a stabbing at 169th St. and Linden Blvd. in Queens.
• The New Yorker collects quotes from striking writers and their supporters regarding the strike beard phenomena. Conan O'Brien, on perhaps the only physical feature that will ever help him resemble a lumberjack: "I’m the only guy chopping wood outside his Manhattan co-op.”
• Former Yankee Jim Leyritz was arrested on suspicion of DUI and DUI manslaughter after a crash in Florida last night (Leyritz's 44th birthday), which killed the driver of the car he struck.

Isn't the Internet wonderful? It lets baseball fans vote in an All-Star game player and now it lets people around the world decide what to do with a historic ball. After purchasing the ball that Barry Bonds hit to break baseball's all-time home run record, fashion designer Marc Ecko has decided to give the public a vote on what to do with the ball. On the website Vote756.com, Ecko gives voters three choices, "Bestow it. Brand it. Banish it." That's bestow it to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame, brand it with an asterisk and then send it to Cooperstown, and banish it to space via rocket. more ›

Miss New Jersey Amy Polumbo made a repeat appearance on the Today Show this morning to share her "racy" photographs with Matt Lauer. This is how the Today Show website describes the photographs, which are apparently the ones someone took from Polumbo's Facebook profile and mailed to pageant officials:

The photos really aren’t that bad, by contemporary standards, but they aren’t necessarily good for the 22-year-old theater major’s public image, either. more ›

If you're still reading the paper version of The New York Times, get ready to spend a little more. Cover prices will go up to $1.25 from $1 starting July 16th. Sunday prices will increase on July 15th, going from $3.50 to $4.00. The last increase for The Times in the New York area was in 1999. The increased prices are projected to add $7-8 million in revenue this year and $14-16 million in 2008. Home delivery prices will increase 3-4%. Time will tell whether the price increase will cause subscribers to cancel their subscriptions and read the paper online. more ›