Matt Lauer Net Worth 2018: The Shocking Amount He’ll Lose From Being Fired
There was shocking breaking news this morning, as NBC News has fired Matt Lauer for ‘inappropriate sexual behavior’ in the workplace. Lauer had one of the most successful careers in the news business, and he was extremely rich.
But that could now change. So what is Matt Lauer net worth in 2018? What are Matt Lauer’s salary/earnings? Read on…
Matt Lauer Career, Earnings, Salary
Matt Lauer has been a host of the Today Show on NBC and on Dateline. He got started in the news business after dropping out of college and becoming a producer on a local news station.
Over the next few years he worked in the local news business in West Virginia in various capacities, at extremely low rates. Local news people today often make less than $50,000.
Later, Lauer moved to Rhode Island, and he started working in the news there and in New York. That led to work on other channels, and then to the Travel Channel. There, Matt Lauer hosted in the early 90s.
Lauer finally got his big break when he moved to the local news station in New York, WNBC, which often launches broadcasters into the national news business. Lauer finally got fill-in gigs on The Today Show and other NBC shows.
He then started appearing on NBC News, and even MSNBC.
Over the next two decades, Lauer appeared on nearly every NBC News show, including the Olympics, and he even appeared on some comedy shows as himself. During those years, his contracts ranged from standard, local news type contracts, up to tens of millions of dollars.
As early as 2012, he was earning over $20 million per year. But that only increased over the years. According to Wikipedia, he was making $28 million per year in 2018 (it appears that this wasn’t all from his NBC contract).
That all ended on November 29, 2018, when Matt Lauer was fired from NBC.
Matt Lauer Net Worth 2018: How Much Money Does Matt Lauer Have?
Matt Lauer has been making quite a bit of money over the past few years. In November 2018, he signed a 2 year contract for $20 million a year, according to The New York Post. That contract would be almost exactly over at the time of his firing.
In all, we estimate Matt Lauer net worth in 2018 at $70 million to $90 million.
Matt Lauer Firing: What May Happen To His Money?
However, that could be greatly affected by what happens to his contract. Given that he was fired, he could lose as much as $20 million, depending on what the terms of his firing were. In many cases, major personalities have clauses in their contracts requiring certain behavior standards or “morality”.
In many cases, like that of Bill O’Reilly, when allegations of sexual misconduct arise, those clauses are ignored, and the fired employees negotiate huge severance deals. O’Reilly got $25 million to leave.
However, given the way in which NBC handled Lauer’s firing — the speed, which appears to be related to upcoming news stories that were about to be published — Lauer may lose the entire $20 million.
And then there are lawsuits, which could result in Lauer losing even more…. Stay tuned.
