While the writers behind The Morning Show maintain that the Apple TV+ drama isn’t based on Matt Lauer’s exit from the Today show, Katie Couric could read between the lines.
“I have so many thoughts,” the 63-year-old former Today anchor told Danny Pellegrino on the Monday, April 27, episode of his “Everything Iconic” podcast. “I thought some of it was really interesting and I think the long-term impact and the serious devastation that results from certain behaviors was quite well represented, or quite well conveyed in that.”
Jennifer Aniston stars on the series as Alex Levy, a longtime morning show anchor whose on-air partner, Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell), is replaced by Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) after a sexual misconduct scandal.
“I think Jennifer Aniston is great,” Couric continued. “The character or the role, I wish they had made her more charismatic because I think you need a certain ebullience to pull off a show like that. I thought it was really interesting to watch.”
Couric cohosted Today alongside Lauer, 62, for nine years. In November 2017, he was fired from NBC News after he was accused of sexual misconduct. Lauer, who was later accused of rape by former employee Brooke Nevils, denied all the allegations against him.
“[Mitch is] not Matt Lauer,” Morning Show showrunner Kerry Ehrin told The Hollywood Reporter in November 2019. “It wasn’t designed to be about him; I didn’t study him. It was about a guy who works in morning news who gets fired for sexual misconduct. That did happen to Matt Lauer. It also happened to Charlie Rose and someone on Fox — it isn’t exclusively Matt Lauer.”
Couric told Pellegrino that she’s writing about “all about all this stuff” in her upcoming book.
The journalist also noted that she doesn’t tune into Today much anymore.
“Not really. Not too much. I look at newsletters, I really get most of my news on my telephone,” she explained. “I think I just changed the way I consume my news and information.”
