Ann Curry to step in as Meredith Vieira expected to leave NBC’s ‘Today’ in June

(HMG Celebrity News) – Meredith Vieira is set to leave the NBC Today show in June, three months before the end of her contract, according to The Hollywood Reporter.  Always the newsreader, Ann Curry, who was passed over for the job when Vieira replaced Katie Couric in 2006, will then step up to co-host Today with Matt Lauer. Correspondent Natalie Morales will be the new newsreader.

Vieira, 57, is apparently “beloved” by the ‘Today’ cast and crew, but sources say she is leaving for largely personal reasons as her daughter is preparing to leave for college and her husband, Richard Cohen, suffers from multiple sclerosis.

Besides that she still hosts the syndicated game show, “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” and recently produced the film, “Return,” about a female soldier’s return home after war. Vieira replaced Katie Couric on “Today” in 2006 after her stint as one of the original hosts of ABC’s “The View,” and helped propel the morning news show with Lauer to the top for more than 800 weeks.