we'll find out what we need to do to change our health. >> if someone you loved for was putting what you're putting in your mouth in their mouth, what would you tell them, that is fundamentally the answer you have to give yourself. >> only in america, the typo gone viral. this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening i'm not piers morgan i'm donny deutsch filling in for piers. i'm turning the tables, i think the best in the business, matt lauer will answer my questions, this should be good. are you sure you want to do this? >> keep in mind i have a lot of opportunities to get you back on my show. you be nice you be kind think before you leap. >> by the way, you do that all the time. i have never seen you take shots at any other guest as much as you do me. is that because -- >> you're easy pickin's, you sit between two kind of very opinionated ladies and you throw yourself out there and i think you do it on purpose, knowing you have a big target on your back it makes it more fun. you have thick skin. >> i'll embarrass you. >> let's go. >> we'll bust on each other when i was running a business i would say you can tell about the company when the elevator doors open. that is how "the today show" is. i have an insiders perspective, you walk on the set, everybody is nice. the energy is up, there is something in the walls, it's because of you. let me finish, i need to pay you this compliment. >> will i get a word in? >> absolutely not. the way you treat every crew member, please, thank you, there is no hierarchy, that doesn't exist in most businesses or sets. i have been impressed. >> appreciate that. i take that as a huge compliment. i don't think i'm the person who started it. when i got there it was that way, has always been thus. you're asking to have people get up at 1:00 in the morning, driving from their homes, getting there at 2:00. they've done a full day's work by the time i get there and get my make up on and get pampered on air. why wouldn't you say thank you and please to those people. you talk about the way we treat other people that come through "the today show" you're asking people to give you a moment of their time and come to our studio and give you their insight on a subject, i just don't understand treating people differently, i think it's not only -- i hope it's not just the way we treat people when they come to the "the today show" but meet people on the street as well. i get a lot of people who come up to me on the streets, just as you do. and sometimes i'm with my family, sometimes with my friend, and the way i've always viewed it, the way it was taught to me by people like bryant and tom brokaw, and those are the customers. you treat your customer the way you do, if you would have a tire store, and somebody on the street wants to talk about the tires, you give them the time of day. >> matt you're the exception, not the rule. >> then it's the way i was brought up. >> that is the last nice thing i will say. >> thank you. >> you have a big responsibility. to me your job on television, your specific job is the most personal with viewers of anybody. you get america up in the morning. you do, lens the day for them, that is a big load, a big burden. >> it's always been made apparent to me when people do approach me or come up and talk about it, i have been around brokaw for example when people say i watch you on the news or i get my news from you, when they come up to me, al, ann, they say i start my day with you, and it's a subtle difference but a big difference. no question about it, what they are saying is they are giving you that moment of their day when it's most important. they have been asleep want to know the world hasn't disappeared while they were sleeping and what they need to get through their day. it is a vulnerable time of their day, i truly think, so it does take a certain approach and i try to bring that to the table. >> alarm goes off at 4:10, but you wake up at 4:08. >> between 4:08, 4:07 and 4:10, my eyes open up no matter what, a pure creature of habit. i hate it to be honest with you. lately more and more, my eyes wake up at 3:10 and 3:15, i don't sleep the way i used to and it makes it harder each morning. >> when you're getting dress and putting on the barbisol, it's like -- what are you saying to yourself? are you thinking what i will do with the kids this weekend or fashioned the show in your head? >> i'm thinking about what changed. i went to bed with one show, i knew what to expect when i went to bed based on what happened by that time of the day. i can be guaranteed that while i was sleeping, just like while america is sleeping, the world changed, and it may change in little ways, may change in big ways. the first thing i want to know and checked on my iphone, that is my alarm clock, is my work load going to change in the morning, what segments did i think i would do that are no longer in the show and what is new on the plate and how do i want to approach those, who will i talk to on the staff when i get in, how will i get the information, what do i need to read in the paper, what website does i have to go to in the morning. and the interesting thing about my day and i think it may not be the same with a lot of other jobs is when the alarm goes off at 4:10, i've got to get mentally in tune right off the bat. i don't have a large time or large amount of time to kind of ease into it. the day starts quickly. >> a little insight the segment i do a couple times aweek, the topics the night before, the next morning they change, you're changing them i watch you very interesting, during the commercial break, when we're sitting there, i'm watching you because what i'm doing now, not to be i'm watching what you're doing, you are going over everything, you're not just okay what's up next, you're teeing it up, this is one segment, out of two hours and -- >> clearly the shows moves quickly. the segment i probably put more work into on any given week than any other because it's got five topics within one segment and my job there is to tee it up for you guys. it's funny you say i tee it up. my job is to say look, here's the topic, or to the viewers, here is the topic, i want to hear what you have to say. i have to understand where you might go with that topic so i can follow it up and refocus you, you in particular because you tend to get off the subject a lot. so i'm trying to figure out where you might go with this and what follow-up question viewers would want to hear and i think those subjects they either live or die in the first 30 seconds of them. i can tell when i'm setting a subject up and looking at your eyes and nancy and star, if that segment, that subject will live or die by the interest level in your eyes. >> let me challenge you, i see new that segment, you're biting your lip -- >> not my job to give my opinions you try to lure me into that. >> what would be wrong if in that segment, once again i'm not saying your political view, you're biting, you want -- what would break the rules if matt lauer engaged? >> it doesn't and i do. you will hear me by my follow-up questions, i think you're missing the point and let's use one of the comments you made the other day about chris hayes on another network. >> in my gentle way. >> made comments about fallen soldiers and saying we don't necessarily have to call them all heros. if i start to hear your comments and hear nancy's comments and i don't think you're sticking to the point that i think is germane and important, i will upp in. viewers buy that if they listen carefully, will know how i feel about. that that is a general rule of them i do try to stay down the middle and yet over the course of time, if people watch our show and more importantly listen to, they will know where i stand on certain issues by the questions i ask, the way i ask them or questions i don't ask. >> where you stand. let's talk about characters, i'll ask you for each personality, one word on some of this. >> word association? >> very clever thing. >> classic story, bryant gumbel and yogi berra. we'll play word association i'll give you a name you give me the one word. he goes okay. mickey mantle, yogi says what about him? >> bryant gumbel? >> consumate professional. >> katie couric? >> extraordinarily talented. i get along with her very well. >> you guys were friends frnl. >> we had fan takesic moments and moments where it was more tense. but she is without a doubt one of the most incredibly talented people i've ever met and to this day, when we're in the same room together, we make each other laugh, that is the nicest compliment. >> she has great energy. i saw her in a restaurant a couple weeks ago, she lights it up. >> always thinking about what can happen next, when we get together for dinner which we do fairly often or lunch, katie has 1,000 ideas for subjects, shows, for the way -- things she wants to do i've admired that. >> meredith viera. >> wow, that will take more than a couple words. also remarkably talented. the most real person i've ever had the pleasure of working with. i hit it off with meredith the moment i met her. i knew we would become true friends and that has been the case. i adore her. >> how about the thug, al roker? >> exactly the same guy off the air as on the air. i know i'm breaking all the people i bring up is al. a lot of the young broadcasters say who should i pattern myself after? i say don't pattern after anybody, be yourself the whole trick, the whole thing that makes people successful on the air if they can get in front of a camera and when that red light goes on, they can be the same person they are off the camera. al is that guy. al is the same guy off camera that he is on camera, what you see is what you get and i think that is what has made him so successful. >> mike fox gave me good advice, he said they will know anyway, be who you are, the camera doesn't lie. >> which is hard sometimes, with that comes the idea that you have to then take the criticism, it's not like we're actors playing a role, if tom cruise plays a role in his next movie, i hated the character, they are hating the guy he's playing. if you or if i go on we do a television show and we're being ourselves and people say "i hate matt lauer" that is me and that is a harder thing to swallow. >> ann curry. >> the biggest heart in broadcasting. incredibly talented, but again, feels, cares, is concerned about other people more than anyone i've met. >> we'll take a break. when we get back, i want to know how matt lauer became the matt lauer, but first someone has a question. >> what would i ask matt lauer, does he ever wish sometimes when he's sitting with ann curry and al roker, he could get as drunk as koda and kathy lee do in that fourth hour? a party? 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[ female announcer ] new ensure clear. nine grams protein. zero fat. twenty-one vitamins and minerals. in blueberry/pomegranate and peach. refreshing nutrition in charge! many electric shock -- >> too many kids on ritalin? >> i'm just saying. aren't there examples where it works? >> you're glib. >> my job is to protect the country, matt, i'm going to within the law. >> there were people who probably last year at this time would have placed a bet you might not even be around. and i mean literally. >> i would support that. >> to come back at 25, how do you view it? >> it's crazy. >> those were some of the matt lauer's great moments. i was watching you, you were getting a kick out of it. >> you look back at some of those things, the tom cruise thing became larger than life, and just one of those moments where a live interview, it wasn't life, was a taped interview, where you knew that something was going to get enormous amount of attention. >> as it's happening, you sat there, what is going through your mind? you see the biggest star in the world kind of become unhinged, what is going through your mind at that moment? >> let him keep going. you know, i think the idea there was to not rise to the level of energy he had, was to remain calm and keep making what i thought was a very simple point, but also at the same time, just giving enough rope so that it continues. you don't want a moment like that to come and go in 30 seconds. you realize you have someone at a moment where he's going to give you things you don't expect to get, and so the idea is to not take too much advantage of it, you don't want to -- you don't want to do -- >> exploit it. >> but you also want to find out something about tom cruise that you didn't know before. one of those moments that lived in infamy. tom realized in hindsight it wasn't his best moment. he has been incredibly gracious after that in talking about it. >> i want to go to one more clip. your opening day for matt lauer, 1997. >> doing this for the haircut? >> young ingenue. let's take a quick look. >> special monday morning for our friend matt lauer, how did that sound, one more time let's hear it. >> play it back. >> this is "today" with katie couric and matt lauer. and matt lauer. >> i think the take away for viewers that is is what waking up at 4:10 does to you over the course of 17 years. >> that looked like good morning, phoenix. >> you lose your hair. >> you look better now though. you really do. >> that is an out of body experience. i don't remember that, i don't know who that guy was. i only know that he was panicked as to what he was getting into, taking over from bryant gumbel and sitting next to this incredibly talented katie couric, it was -- that was a very, very nerve racking time for me. >> wow. the thing you're best at if i go back to the interview, not that mailed you, i think the first thing when you had hillary on, asking her about the scandal, monica lewinsky, tough questions. as a guy learning the business, what is the technique, you know you have to ask tough questions is there a way, is there a method, first i'll prop them up, what is -- >> i think there are many different ways to get results, there is the iron fist, there is the velvet hammer. and then the way would you do it at a cocktail party or someone's home or ran into them in a restaurant. very few people walk up to someone and go right between the eyes. i don't think that is a method that yields great results. i've always felt there is a way to ask a question. and it's not beating around the bush, it's putting a question in a way that people say well this makes common sense. i know where he's going, i know what he wants to ask, when you have a jim mcgreevey and ask him how he could thought he could get away with what he was doing with state troopers standing outside hotel rooms. hillary clinton and you need to ask her what she knew and how much she knew about monica lewinsky. when you have lindsay lohan and you have to ask her is she clean and sober, sometimes the direct approach is fine but other times you do have to show that you care about them as a human being before you go in for what would be considered the kill. and i don't consider myself to be someone who goes for the kill anyway. that is not my style. >> tough questions which you do ask. think about everybody you interviewed, you missed a question. >> it happens every single interview. >> if you could pick one, the one you go how did i not ask that? >> normally it's there. normally it's there in terms of what i want to get to, a lot of times it's a time restraint, a lot of time the interview goes in a direction that i didn't expect to it go, one of the things i always said back to these people getting in the business is the worst thing you can do and you know this very well, because you're doing it right now, the worst thing -- i'm kidding. >> i never think about the next question. >> the worst thing is go in with an agenda and have a schedule of questions. then what you're not doing is listening. you're not taking the time to let the interview become organic and go where it should go and so often times to get back to your question, i don't ask a question that i really wanted to ask because i found something else that interested me at the moment and then perhaps i ran out of time. >> we'll come back, when we come back 25 million dollar question, what made you stay with "today" did we just answer that question? [ female announcer ] roam like the gnome this summer. it's the travelocity spring into summer sale. you can save up to 50% on select hotels and vacation packages. so book your summer vacation now and save up to 50%. offer ends soon. book right now at travelocity.com. truth be told i was developing an idea for a new show viewers could tune in and see someone they know lose more of his hair every day, i thought i don't have to do that i can stay here. no, this is my family, i love this job, i love working with you guys. all the people behind the scenes i'm excited let's keep going. >> matt lauer he's announcing he stays at "today." you made jokes about your hair does it bother you? >> it started to bother me when it started to go. count say i'm happier, i never think about. >> i don't own a comb or brush, i get out of the shower, i comb my hair with a towel and no, i think it's taken so much of a weight off my shoulders, it's something i just -- it never crosses my mind. doesn't bother me one bit, it really doesn't. >> 25 million a year, 100 million, a lot of money. what are you going to do with it? that is real -- that is like a serious chunk of dough. so now you've always been very wealthy, that is crazy wealth. >> let me stop you, first of all, i have not heard anybody come up with the right amount. >> okay. >> that number gets out there i'm supposed to answer it as if it's fact. >> don't apologize -- >> i'm not apologizing. a lot of things were written during the contract negotiations or the decision to stay. i think 2% of what was written was true. the number has never been true. so it wasn't about the money, i promise you. >> i know. >> i did not stay at "the today show" because of money. i think there are other ways to make money. i stayed there because as i said in the clip, i do love the show, and despite the fact the alarm clock goes off at 4:10 and it's brutal, i still do like getting out of bed and i think that i have fed off the company trough at nbc and been the benefactor at great success. times are harder, the show is not where i want it to be right now. the ratings are not where i want them to be. >> what do you want to do different? >> i want to make it better. i want to reinvigorate the show in some ways that perhaps we have let up on in the past couple years. and so, to leave now seemed like leaving when work needed to be done. i think it would have been a lot easier to leave if we were soaring to new heights, but the competition is tougher, there are a lot of challenges out there and as a result, that didn't feel like the right time to leave the people, i'm talk about behind the scenes people, that i spent almost 20 years of my life with. >> you and i had a dinner, money didn't come up once, we talked about were you going to stay, money didn't come up. >> in this business for some reason, they are very generous with people like me. and so it's a matter of degree. how happy do you need to be? i've always been happy. i was happy when i made not a lot of money and more money. it's not how much more money you can make. i promise you it's not about. that it's wanting to leave the show in a good place. although i think it is knee a good place right now i think it could be in a better place that is why i stuck around. >> you have been on top 17 years, gma had a couple wins. >> right. >> h