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This morning was Meredith Vieira’s last day on The Today Show after five years as co-anchor. Meredith, 57, announced in May that she would be leaving “in a few weeks” in order to spend more time with her family. Meredith’s husband of 25 years, TV journalist Richard M. Cohen, has multiple sclerosis and she wants to spend more time with him. The couple has three grown children, the youngest of which is 18, and want to travel and relax together. Before the announcement that she would leave her post, Meredith said that it was a possibility and “that she would look forward to not working, to traveling with Richard and carving out time for us.”

Ann Curry will step in to Meredith’s place as co-anchor beside Matt Lauer. It’s clear that Meredith will be missed on the show. They aired an incredibly long tribute to her and brought in Carole King to sing “You’ve Got a Friend.” At the end, everyone in the studio wore bright orange shirts declaring their love for Meredith as they brought her around the studio and lip synced “Don’t Stop Believing.” (Kathie Lee and Hoda’s T-Shirts said “Wine lovers [heart] Meredith”!) They dragged it out a very long time and it reached ridiculous levels at the end. They ran around the streets of New York and Jimmy Fallon played air guitar while a huge procession of people in those t-shirts clapped and did a coordinated dance for her. The video where they say goodbye to Meredith is above, but it leaves out the most impressive section, when they were all dancing and singing for her.

It was all really touching. My favorite part was when Meredith said that she’ll always remember the Virginia Tech students asking her for hugs after the tragic shooting there in 2007. I couldn’t help but cry at that. There was plenty of tears, hugs and kisses for Meredith today.

My mom retired early at 55, and she keeps busy with part time work and plenty of clubs and activities. She’s got a busier schedule than I do, but she loves that her timetable is flexible now, and that she doesn’t have to get up at the same time and go to the same place every day. Meredith will continue her hosting duties on “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire,” but that’s not an everyday commitment like The Today Show and will afford her more time with her family. Good luck to Meredith in her future endeavors. She’ll really be missed, especially since a lot of people find Ann Curry to be a twit. I didn’t mean to throw that in this otherwise nice story, but I can’t help it, Curry really bugs me. Maybe if she fixed her eyebrows I wouldn’t be as bothered by that breathy way she talks and the way she fawns all over the celebrities.

Highlights of Meredith’s career:

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Earlier this week, Katie Couric announced that she’s departing her post at CBS News; in what can only be considered a coincidence, Merideth Vieira (who replaced Couric on NBC’s “Today” show in 2006), has made her own plans to leave her anchor position as well. While Vieira will continue her hosting duties for “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” it’s understood that she’s leaving her early morning gig for personal reasons including the desire to spend more time with her husband, Richard Cohen, during his battle with multiple sclerosis. Her decision is wholly understandable, for “Millionaire” probably tapes several episodes in a single afternon and doesn’t require nearly as much of a time committment as “Today,” in which the anchor schedule probably demands a regular 4:00AM wake-up call. Vieira will be quite fittingly replaced by Ann Curry, who has been waiting in the wings since the early 1990s for her turn in the spotlight:

Meredith Vieira will exit NBC’s Today show in June, nearly three months before the end of her contract, according to sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Today newsreader Ann Curry will be promoted to co-host, and correspondent Natalie Morales will take Curry’s place as newsreader.

An official announcement could come as early as next week.

Vieira took the seat next to co-host Matt Lauer in 2006, replacing Katie Couric. Since then, Today has extended its run as the top-rated morning news program to more than 800 weeks. The show is critically important to NBC News’ bottom line, pulling in half a billion dollars in ad revenue last year for the weekday morning hours alone.

By elevating Curry and Morales, Today executives have the benefit of personalities who are familiar to viewers at a time of pronounced tumult in television news in general.

Vieira has been mulling an exit from Today for some time but came to a decision this week, according to sources. As recently as two weeks ago, Today executive producer Jim Bell told The Hollywood Reporter that he was hopeful she would stay. The Today team is in London to cover the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

[From Hollywood Reporter]

While I always thought Vieira was a good fit as a “Today” anchor (and preferable to Couric), Ann Curry will probably slide right into regular anchor duties with no problem at all. Whenever she’s merely pinch hitting for an absent anchor, Curry always exudes a wonderful warmth and empathy for all stories while speaking to the camera. As a side note, the below photos show Vieira and Curry (in 2008) during and after an onstage “kiss” before Coldplay performed in Rockefeller Plaza. Who knew that Coldplay could inspire faux lesbianism?

Photos courtesy of WENN and Fame Pictures

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A tired wonk-eyed Kate Gosselin was on The Today Show this morning to “set the record straight” about the rumors that her show was canceled and two of her sextuplets were expelled from their private school. She repeated the same claims she’s made in earlier interviews, that her kids weren’t expelled but were having problems in school due to the divorce, and that her show is not canceled. This woman talks in incomplete run on sentences as if she’s trying to cram in every point she’s trying to make simultaneously. She was arrogant and defensive while refuting the rumors and tried to make it sound like everything was normal and under her complete control.

On how she and the kids are doing
It is so great a year later [after the divotce] to feel put back together and more normal and we’re functioning and in a routine. We’re very happy actually.

On Colin and Alexis getting expelled: No, but
That is false, they were not expelled from school. We have a situation where… my kids are in an academically excelling school where academics are pushed and I fully support it combined with kids who are having just gone through a divorce of their parents. Suffering all those normal feelings and the two collided and they just were not doing well with the combination.

On how she has her kids problems under control
They were having anger issues. They were acting out, having behavior things. Things that I felt very alone once I did the research, talked to other moms that have gone through divorces, very normal stuff in that regard. So I did what I could do, we mutually agreed, I brought them home, I have them with a private tutor… she’s teaching them on on one, they are excelling along with weekly therapy… all is well again… The goal is to get them back into school.

On how all her other kids are fine, of course
When you have two kids who are not following the course – all eight of my kids have always followed the same path and this is the first time we’ve kind of had kids who hadn’t… it’s so hard because you’re thinking ‘my gosh, what in the world?’ Then I look at my other six, who are excelling at school and at home, doing everything wonderfully that they should be doing, so they’re amazingly well. No they are not being watched in school, no they are not doing anything other than doing wonderfully. So I mean, I think we have done very well and I knew going through a divorce, you have to watch for stuff. It will happen. This is not abnormal, at all.

Kate also said that she and Jon had no issue with each other over the holiday custody schedule and said “that’s been very peaceful.” She said that when it comes to scheduling time with the kids “I always reach out to him first… and I do it amicably with solutions and the best interests of the kids in mind.” On whether she accepts Jon’s apology, which he tweeted last month, Kate said “I’ve never personally been apologized to… but I have strangely and ironically forgiven him, for the sake of my kids… I don’t really have time to waste sitting around being upset.” See, Kate is in control and of course she’s the wronged, better party.

As for Jon’s complaint that his kids should be off TV, Kate haughtily maintained that “their best interest is what is good for the kids, what they enjoy, what I see on their faces, and there has been nothing but positive that has come out of it. I am working while they’re by my side and traveling and that is not only providing us trips for a lifetime but it’s providing for their future and I am still sitting here honestly telling you Meredith and I believe it wholeheartedly, as does the evidence that you see on TV, that it is in their best interest… we would not be doing it if it wasn’t… it’s a heaven on earth job, it really is.” We’ll see if her kids agree with her when they’re 20-something and are realizing how f’ed up their made-for-TV tabloid childhood really was.

I’ve been hearing sh-t about Matt Lauer’s marriage problems, real or alleged, for a while now. I seem to remember some rumors about how he and his Dutch wife Annette Roque separated last year or something, and they haven’t been photographed together in a while. This is the first time I realized he’s already on his second marriage, though. His current (maybe estranged) wife Annette is his second wife, and they’ve been married since 1998. His first wife was a television producer named Nancy Alspaugh, and they were married from 1982-89. Nancy is the one the National Enquirer interviews, and her quotes seem to be the basis for this week’s cover story.

Previous Enquirer story:
Today Show star Matt Lauer’s six-year marriage to stunning model Annette Roque is over, sources claim. The National Enquirer can reveal that in recent weeks the 47- year-old TV star has been secretly shopping for his own New York City apartment.

“I heard he and Annette are breaking up,” confirmed Lauer’s ex-wife Nancy Alspaugh. “I was not shocked to hear that. But it’s very sad.”

Dutch-born Annette, 39, the mother of their two children, is said to be heartbroken by the difficulties in their marriage which in the past has been dogged by stories of his womanizing.

*****New Enquirer story:

MATT LAUER has walked out on his wife of 12 years after she furiously accused the Today star of cheating with at least two women, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.

After an explosive two-day fight, the 52-year-old father of three moved out of the family home – and his fed-up wife Annette is no longer wearing her wedding ring, reveal sources.

AND in an exclusive ENQUIRER interview, Annette’s mother confirmed the marital blowup and that Matt has left the family apartment.

The ENQUIRER learned an enraged Annette accused Matt of fooling around during Today’s on-site coverage of the Olympics in Vancouver.

According to a source, the broadcaster and colleagues “went wild” at nightspots.

[From The National Enquirer]

Oh, so he’s supposed to be a womanizer! Does anyone know who he’s allegedly been boning? I did a one-minute Google search and apparently there are rumors about Matt and his Today co-anchor Meredith Vieira! Social Mediaseo claims: “There isn’t a whole lot of substance to there rumors at the moment, but the allegations are substantial enough to where people are starting to talk about this issue on a pretty large scale.” So basically, a lot of conjecture based on Meredith and Matt’s on-screen chemistry?

Matt & Annette on December 12, 2009 & May 8, 2007. Matt & Meredith on November 24, 2009. Credit: WENN. Enquirer cover courtesy of CoverAwards.