NBC’s top executives met with the TV and radio personality Tuesday night to talk about the possibility of joining the show, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The talks - which were revealed to the media by insiders - are tentative, but could pbe a strong backup plan should Mr Lauer decide to leave.

Included in the meeting was Today show executive producer Jim Bell, NBC News President Steve Capus, and senior vice president for marketing and communications Lauren Kapp, sources close to the company said.
Mr Lauer has sat in the co-anchor chair since 1997. The other seat was recently vacated by Meredith Viera, who was replaced by Ann Curry.

Katie Couric co-anchored the Today show for 15 years, nine of them alongside Mr Lauer.
Shows like Today are vastly important to networks, as audience members tend to be vastly loyal and often high in numbers. Heavy viewership in prime time is more rare in the days of specialised channels, DVR, and Netflix.
Today brought NBC $535million in advertising revenue in 2010 alone, according to Kantar Media estimates. And that’s up 5.6% from 2009.
Earlier this year, Mr Lauer indicated to NBC executives that he was mulling leaving the show. The network declined to comment on the meeting or any discussions currently underway.
Earlier this year, NBCUniversal merged with ComCast, which owns the E! network.

Mr Seacrest already has a lucrative deal with E! and serves as lead anchor and managing editor of E! News.
At the time of the merger, Mr Seacrest told The Hollywood Reporter he was excited about it. ‘I’m kind of going into this merger saying, “Hey, what do you got? What can we do? Yes. Let’s go.”’
His contract with E! is up in early 2012. Mr Seacrest’s spokeswoman declined to comment on the talks but confirmed that the negotiations with NBC are on-going.


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