Like every man in America I find Katie Couric attractive: High praise from Matt Lauer for former Today Show co-host
- Matt Lauer and Katie Couric fronted the Today Show together for 12 years
- Couric is a '9 or 10 physically', her former co-anchor told Howard Stern
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News anchor Matt Lauer has confessed he finds his former co-host Katie Couric 'very attractive'.
The 51-year-old, who fronted the Today Show with Couric from 1994 to 2006, told radio show host Howard Stern that 'every man in America' was attracted to his then co-anchor, 56, who he described as a '9 or 10' physically.
The star added that Couric's 'great personality' boosted her to a '14'.
'Attractive': 'Every man in America' found her attractive, Matt Lauer (seen with his former Today Show co-host in 2006) said of Katie Couric
'Fun': Katie Couric, seen during her own interview with Howard Stern last month, co-hosted the Today Show with Lauer from 1994 to 2006
'She's a very attractive woman, not only physically, but her personality,' Lauer said on Stern's show.
'If she's a 9 or 10 physically, she's a 14 because ... she's got a great personality. She's fun.'
'We had a good and easy chemistry,' he explained, according to a report in the New York Daily News.
Last month Couric, now at ABC, revealed to Stern she too had a 'little crush' on Lauer in the days when he was a local news anchor.
'I thought he was so funny, and so quick,' she said.
Despite the apparent mutual attraction, both Lauer and Couric insist they were never romantically involved.
Of Couric's replacement Meredith Vieira, who retired in 2011, Lauer said: 'She was beloved by everyone on staff.'
But Stern said he ran out of time before he could ask the news anchor's opinion on ousted Today Show host Ann Curry.
Former 'family': Couric and Lauer co-anchored while Curry (right) was a co-host during the late 1990s
Chemistry and lack thereof: Couric and Lauer got along great (left in 1997), while Lauer and Curry struggled (right in 2012 before she was fired)
Couric recently revealed that she was approached about coming back to her old Today Show stomping ground as part of a plan to replace Ann Curry.
She talked about how Lauer discussed various programming options with her during NBC's tumultuous ratings last spring, including one where the former co-anchors would head up a daytime talk show as well as lead the morning news.
'Matt
and I had talked about possibly teaming up and doing a show at some
point and there were some cautious overtures to me to possibly come back
to the 'Today' show, but they evaporated,' she told Howard Stern last month.
The reported backroom talks about the
possible anchor switch came when Couric's contract with CBS News was
about to end which coincided with the Today Show's loss of their 16-year
ratings winning streak against competitor Good Morning America.
It has been previously reported that Lauer reached out to Couric and encouraged her to come back and replace Curry, but the interview with Stern served as the first time that any of the principals involved confirmed the move.
During the interview with the shock jock, she never mentioned Curry by name, choosing only to say kind things about her old show.
'For me, that was the best job,' she told Stern.
Couric sat at the Today Show anchor desk from 1991 to 2006, much of that time spent next to Lauer who has been on the morning show since 1997.
In many of the reports of what really happened inside NBC when Ann Curry was pushed out of her spot as co-anchor after only a year, Lauer was seen as the bad guy, the driving force behind Curry's quick turn-around.
In Couric's eyes, however, he is just a good friend who she used to have a crush on.
Stern questioned her about whether she and Lauer ever had a romantic relationship- which she has denied many times- though she did admit to finding him attractive before they worked together.
'You know what, I actually had a little crush on matt when he was the local news anchor at WNBC because he was so funny and so quick,' she said.
Now the dust is beginning to settle from last year's multi-network game of anchor musical chairs as Couric headlines her own daytime talk show on ABC and Lauer remains at the helm of the Today Show alongside his new co-anchor, Savannah Guthrie.
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