Listen: Matt Lauer Feels Sorry For Bob Costas, Hopes He Comes Back Soon
(CBS) In an interview Friday morning with 670 The Score's Mully and Hanley, NBC's Matt Lauer said that despite getting limited sleep, it's been a privilege to fill in for the eye infection-plagued Bob Costas in anchoring primetime coverage at the Sochi Olympics, but everyone wants Costas back soon.
Costas has been off Olympic coverage for the past several days after an eye infection in his left eye also spread to his right eye. In his absence, Lauer's often been pulling double duty with NBC's Today Show and primetime Olympic coverage, saying he's only been getting a couple hours of sleep per night.
"Earlier in the week I was with him in the restaurant, and I'll be honest with you, he did not look good," Lauer said. "It spread to both eyes, and it was a mess. There's no way he could've gone on, just for the fact he really couldn't see that well. And you have to understand, Bob lives for the Olympics … Nobody does it better than he does. He's the master. So for him to be taken out of the seat now for something like that that's such a fluke, it's got to be incredibly frustrating.
"I'm more than happy to fill in, I'll do it as many times as I can, but the big desire for everybody at NBC is he gets better and gets back in the chair."
Lauer also shared his thoughts on the morale of Team USA, his experiences in Sochi and the big USA-Russia hockey game on Saturday. Click below to hear the full interview.
