Matt Lauer Celebrates 20 Years of Hosting ‘Today’

The Today show was in full celebration mode on Friday, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the day Matt Lauer took over co-hosting duties. Lauer was joined by colleagues old and new, and they took a look back at his impressive run on the show. Over the years, Lauer has covered numerous Olympics; covered stories in dozens of countries; and interviewed countless athletes, entertainers, and politicians. Lauer was known for his (mostly) hard-hitting style of interview, challenging the interviewee to answer questions openly and honestly.

One of Lauer’s most famous interviews was with Tom Cruise, in 2005, when the subject of mental health came up. This was at the height of Cruise’s Scientology-inspired freak out. Cruise argued against psychiatrists and against antidepressants, while Lauer agued that he knows people who have been helped by both. What resulted was an interview that surely would have gone viral, if going viral was a thing way back then.

A staple of Lauer’s time on Today was his love of dressing up on Halloween. More specifically, to dress up as a woman on Halloween. He’s dressed up as Paris Hilton, CJ Parker (Pamela Anderson’s character on Baywatch), and maybe the most memorable, Jennifer Lopez from the 2000 Grammy Awards. If that doesn’t ring a bell, think revealing green dress.

It’s hard to sum up Lauer’s long career on Today, but Tom Hanks came pretty close.

Hanks joked, “Hey, Matt Lauer. Congrats on 20 years. Listen. You’ve done a service to all mankind, all men in America, when you said goodbye to the hair without any regrets.”

Watch Stephen Colbert gossip about political leaders with Andy Cohen:

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