Last week, The NY Times did an extensive piece on Ann Curry’s treatment at NBC just prior to her unceremonious ouster last summer. It was an article by Times staff writer Brian Stetler, who also has a new book out on the Today Show’s PR crisis called Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV.
Of course Ann got the ultimate revenge when The Today Show tanked in the ratings afterwards and the public saw Matt Lauer as a philandering big bad wolf. There was some attempt at damage control on Matt’s part, particularly when everyone realized that the ratings dip wasn’t temporary, but it was too little too late. The Times article confirmed some statements that Ann made (before she was demoted/fired) about how bosses wanted her to dye her hair and wear sexier clothing. They also mocked her style, comparing her to Toucan Sam and Big Bird. In the Times’ version, Ann was bullied and demeaned at work, and was ultimately let go when she wouldn’t play ball for the old boys’ network. There’s more in that article about the politics and players involved, and its an interesting read.
So it’s telling to me that Ann was finally given some brief screentime on NBC last week. Of course Ann’s demotion was presented to her as a lateral move to more serious news, but she’s barely been seen on NBC since. After the Boston Marathon Bombing she was on NBC briefly, but a source tells Radar this was damage control for that Times piece and book:
Ann Curry reported live on NBC News Friday night, as part of the team covering the capture of Boston marathon bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. it was the first time Curry has been on the Peacock net live in nine months!
“The decision was made to put Annie on air live at last minute with Brian Williams after suspect # 2 was taken into custody. The network wanted to send message in wake of bad p.r. for TODAY show this week, that Annie wasn’t being hidden in a broom closet,” a source close to the situation tells RadarOnline.com exclusively.
Curry was last seen live on air since the July, 2012 mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado.
As RadarOnline.com has been reporting, the explosive new book, Top of the Morning, has documented the terrible treatment Curry received from her co-workers leading up to and even after she was dumped from her TODAY co-anchor spot.
Well I like that this is coming out now, that we’re hearing how horribly Ann was treated. I was hoping for a better career for her, for some kind of serious news position on another network. I believe that her contract change at NBC locked her into this vastly diminished role with them. We’ve heard that she’s trying to move to CNN but that NBC wants to bar her from working for another network for at least six months. So no matter how they try and spin it, they’re still trying to put the screws to Ann. I wasn’t a real fan of her on-air style, but NBC has treated her incredibly unfairly. That seems to be how they’re known for doing business.
These photos are from 2012. Credit: WENN.com
Karma’s a bitch! They treated Ann very poorly, and I, for one, won’t be watching the Today show anytime soon.
That’s one “toucan” that’s coming home to roost. I read that article and laughed like I was part of a death metal band on behalf of Ann Curry herself.
Errr, I actually have more of a problem with Matt’s hair than with Ann’s! Ugh. Such a boys club. I read that time piece last week and I’ll be reading the book when it comes out. NBC should be ashamed of themselves.
They won’t let her out of her contact but they barely let her do any reporting. What is the point?! I was pretty neutral about Ann before all of this began, but I’m firmly in her camp now after how terribly she was treated.
I just left a terrible job last week where people treated me like crap (classist, sexist, racist etc) and I’m so relieved! It really does a number on your mental health and sense of self. Starting a wonderful job tomorrow though, wish me luck!
Good luck!!!
Good luck! Success is the best revenge!
Der Schnozzle has hair?
best wishes!!!
& please send some back chil’, ’cause i’ve been plotting my egress for the last year like the damn Shawshank Redemption!
i’m ready to through up the deuces & step! 😆
Hahaha thanks for the well wishes everyone! Probably won’t be commenting as much but will be reading everything on my commute!
They were like how about a goodbye party? I was like no thanks, **dropped mike and exited to stage left**
That was a Deliciously dishy article but I agree with whatever executive that said just cause she was a good news reader didnt mean she’d do well in other positions, and she REALLY was attrocious!! It made me laugh that they mocked her clothes cause i distinctly recall calling my sister one morning and asking : WHY IN THE FK IS THIS GROWN ASS JOURNALIST DRESSED LIKE A TODDLER ON MY TV?!????
I can’t believe they told her to dye her hair and wear sexier clothing. I don’t see them telling Matt to get hair plugs or any of the men to wear something different. How gross.
I hope she’s able to jump ship and work for a place that has some respect for people.
Gosh I am so jealous of her hair! I am about half her age, but have as much grey hair as she does………..
Men and women are treated equally in media and we should not challenge this anymore.
Hahaha.
Yeah, right.
Okay I have some very bias thoughts about this one…
I didn’t think it could get any worse for those assh*les at NBC.
I see, I was wrong. LOL!
So the entire upper management of the male population at NBC… made it a point to harass a female employee. About her appearance. Everyone knew it was happening. And not one person stepped in to put a stop to it. Say like, the HR department.
If they wanted her gone. Then NBC needed to buy out her contract and let her move on.
But instead they (the men in upper management at NBC) decided to destroy Ann Curry instead for their own amusement.
And their logic was because they hated her handful of grey hairs.
They hated her cute, stylish and age appropriate clothes.
Oh and they hated that she would not stomp around in hooker heels on air… so she had to GO!
They took to tormenting her. Openly mocking her. And made it a point to be ruthless assh*les to her.
Now they are all shocked! Trying to justify their horrendous behavior as if she deserved it.
I wish Curry would just hire some mean assh*le lawyer. And really make NBC live to regret bullying a female employee for their amusement.
I bet Ann has to push Gloria Allred off her front stoop every morning when she leaves for what’s left of her job. But Ann seems to have too much class to hire the likes of Gloria. But there are a gazillion other attorneys out there who would represent a woman clearly dealing with what is at the very least a hostile work environment but most likely full on discrimination. In my humble opinion anyway.
you are so right MyCat. although I imagine she would rather get back to work (elsewhere) than drag this on, since she did seem to love the work. And unfortunately it would be a punishing fight to win. (otoh, the idea of Anne pushing a camped out Gloria Allred off her stoop made me giggle.)
I think their treatment of her was appalling. That said-she was horrible in any capacity other than news reader. Her interviews were the most cringeworthy things ever.
All they had to do was utilize Ann’s journalism skills on air here and there on nightly programs all this time after taking her off the morning show. They said they were going to use her out in the field again, where her talent lay and then except for a few tiny on-air features, like a few minutes, nada.
All of this would have blown over had they kept her on air in other capacities, like using her for any of these tragedies lately occuring, hurricanes, shootings, and using her for a feature story on Rock Center, Dateline here or there or the nightly news on air here and there out in the field. How hard is that to do? Their damage control skills suck.
Instead it became noticeable how she was being treated like the ugly stepsister and being treated like shit by NBC for being a loyal employee all these years and relegating her to behind the scenes work trying to run out her contract.
How stupid is NBC? Too stupid for words. They just keep shooting themselves in the foot. Anyone with common sense could have told them the public will be infuriated with doing this and that it would only hurt The Today Show even more instead of putting it past them if Anne had been given respect by the network and kept good on their promise to not demote but use her for on air journalism reporting.
I never cared for Ann as co-anchor, so didn’t much care they took her off, but felt awful for her the way it was done. But where they lost me was how she has been treated all this time post The Today Show. They should have been trying to make up for the humiliation instead of the unprofessional way they did, taking her completely out of sight for the length of her contract, thus ruining her momentum as a journalist (plus cruel) and not letting her out of her contract when asked.
I stopped watching Rock Center because of it and their nightly news. Switched to CBS. This goes far greater than just the morning show. It’s how a bunch of good ol boys network, head honchos, decided to systematically punish her post The Today Show, for I guess daring to be a sympathetic character.
Interesting read, the NYT’s article. My opinion is, considering the initial Tonight Show debacle with Letterman/Leno/Carson, the one with O’Brien/Leno, the screwed-up Olympics coverage, and the Today show fiasco, that NBC hasn’t been in good executive hands for a long time.
Smart and stunningly gorgeous woman. Go on Anne!!!
I quit watching NBC in the morning, after the whole Ann Curry debacle. I used to watch the Today show every morning (I grew up watching the Today Show with Jane Pauley and Bryant Gumbel)…now we watch the CBS morning show.
I believe my CB moniker sums up this situation perfectly.
That is all.
after reading the NYTimes article, I can’t wait for the book. shady NBC blew it.
nuff said. 🙁
The NY TIMES article did not mention that Lauer was accused or rumored to be a philanderer, btw.
I have not watched since Brokaw Pauley. First I hated Gumbel, then perky Katie, then Lauer. Fr
Based on CB comments and the Times, it seems Ann was not really right for the job, and many knew it inside NBC at the time of the promotion. But they refused to give her a chance or live with their decision until contract expiration or else move her to a true evening news position. Their clumsiness and disfunction ended up screwing them. Question: is she married to an important tv executive to whom she owes much of her advancement, or am I confusing her with someone else?
No, that’s not her. The one you’re thinking of is on one of those clucking hen shows, and she’s married to a serious higher-up!
Julie Chen over at CBS. Her hubby is Les Moonvies, top dog there.
She’s married to a software engineer.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ann+curry&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#itp=open1
NBC sucks hard and loud! Ann may not have been a proper fit for the show, but she was certainly a dedicated, loyal employee who deserved better.
I will ONLY be tuning in to NBC to see Ann’s segments.