Matt Lauer Replacing Brian Williams On ‘NBC Nightly News’?

There are rumblings that Matt Lauer might replace Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News. As several reports are tossing around with names like Lester Holt and Katie Couric possibly taking over the prime time anchor position, another rumor has surfaced that the Today co-host will take Williams’ seat while he’s on a leave of absence, or eventually on a permanent basis.

Classicalite writes that, in light of Williams’ admission that he misled everyone about being shot down while on a helicopter during the Iraq War in 2003, Lauer is being eyed to fill his shoes if NBC executives fire him.

Lauer has been in the news for a variety of scandals, with the latest being that he allegedly cheated with Food Network star, Giada de Laurentiis, which has been deemed completely false.

Brian Steinberg, a senior TV editor at Variety tells Fox News that having the Today co-anchor replace Williams is a foreseeable possibility.

“Matt Lauer is the best known news person on the network, and he has years of experience interviewing everyone from heads of state to celebrities. The question is ‘would he would to do it?'”

Another strong candidate for anchoring Nightly News includes Lester Holt; he takes over as anchor whenever Brian Williams is off the air.

Tom Brokaw was in the news last week for reportedly pushing executives to remove Williams because it’s damaging to the network. Steinberg has an interesting take on Brokaw being selected for the job.

“They could use the strategy CBS did when they put gravitas-laden Bob Schieffer in to replace the disgraced Rather, and put Brokaw back in the chair to give it some respectability until the smoke clears. Given Brokaw’s recent comments, though, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Brokaw said this in a statement Friday: “I have neither demanded nor suggested Brian be fired. His future is up to Brian and NBC News executives.”

As Steinberg notes, Brokaw made a neutral statement that was neither in support of Brian Williams, nor against him.

It’s hard to predict who’ll appear in Williams’ place if NBC so chooses to go down the route of terminating his contract permanently. Last Wednesday, Williams addressed the scandal to viewers after soldiers called out the reporter for falsely claiming the past 12 years that he’d been in a chopper that was shot down over Iraq. The report was published on Stars and Stripes. Since the debacle, nearly everything that Brian Williams has talked about over the course of his career on the news is being closely scrutinized.

If someone takes over Brian Williams’ position at NBC Nightly News, would Matt Lauer be a good choice?

[Image via NY Daily News]