Anderson Cooper Rumored to be Replacing Matt Lauer at Today Show

March 27th, 2013 10:19 AM

There sure are a lot of rumors flying around about Anderson Cooper.

After Deadline's Nellie Andreeva reported Tuesday that CNN was considering giving him a new show with - perish the thought! - vulgar comedienne Kathy Griffin, Andreeva also reported that NBC is thinking of replacing Today show anchor Matt Lauer with Cooper.

"I hear NBC toppers recently reached out to CNN’s Anderson Cooper to replace Lauer on the show before the end of the year," Andreeva wrote. "After their initial approach to Cooper, I hear NBC reached out to Lauer to get his blessing about the changeover."

"But I heard they got pushback from the Today veteran, who contacted Cooper to express his disapproval," she continued. "I also hear that call caught Cooper by surprise, as he had assumed Lauer had been brought on board before NBC began making overtures."

Cooper isn't the first person rumored to be replacing Lauer.

As NewsBusters reported Monday, New York magazine claimed Lauer almost left the Peacock network for ABC in 2011 because NBC execs had leaked that they were considering replacing him with Ryan Seacrest. Morning Joe co-host Willie Geist is also so rumored.

And just this week there were rumors that Lauer is going to replace Alex Trebek on Jeopardy!

More and more this reads like a soap opera, doesn't it?