NBC Won’t Replace Matt Lauer in Tree Lighting Ceremony

NBC’s annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center Wednesday night will be one co-host short this year.

Entertainment Weekly reports that the network will proceed as scheduled without Matt Lauer, who was removed as an emcee for the event earlier Wednesday. Today co-hosts Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, and Al Roker are set to host the vent.

A source told Page Six that much of the tree lighting ceremony had been pre-recorded and that they weren’t certain how the network would handle those segments.

The 59-year-old Lauer, who has been with NBC for over two decades, was fired after a staffer accused him of sexually assaulting her at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

“As painful as it is this moment in our culture, and this change, had to happen,” Guthrie said during the morning broadcast after reading a statement that NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack sent to employees.

Christmas in Rockefeller Center airs Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.