Matthew Todd "Matt" Lauer is an American television journalist best known as the host of NBC's The Today Show since 1997. He is also a contributor for NBC's Dateline NBC. He was previously a news anchor for The Today Show in 1994 and anchor for WNBC in New York City and a local talk-show host in Boston, Philadelphia, Providence and Richmond. He was also host of PM Magazine and worked for ESPN in the 1980s as a sideline reporter. In the early 1990s, Lauer hosted segments of HBO Entertainment News.