NBC's Hoda Kotb Ogles Cover THR Star Matt Lauer (Video)

6:08 AM PDT 4/12/2012 by Erin Carlson

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The "Today" anchor praises her morning-show colleague, saying: "I don't know that there's a better interviewer in the country right now on television." She also called him "hot."

Like many Today show devotees, Hoda Kotb has a crush on Matt Lauer.

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But unlike many Lauer lovers, she also happens to work on his team at the NBC morning show, co-hosting the fourth hour with Kathie Lee Gifford.The Today co-anchor graces the cover of "The New York Issue" celebrating the 35 Most Powerful People in Media. (Also among them: Big Apple-based news powerhouses as Katie Couric, Diane Sawyer and Anderson Cooper.)

In an interview Wednesday night at the party in honor of THR's media-powerful, held at the midtown Manhattan Four Seasons Restaurant, Kotb could not resist resist ogling a blown-up cover of The Hollywood Reporter, with Lauer posing in a pinstriped suit on a cobblestone street alongside the headline: "The New Most Powerful Face In News."

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"First of all, how hot is Matt Lauer?" she said. "I mean, let's just begin with that. That's just terrific. ... It doesn't surprise me one bit. I don't know that there's a better interviewer in the country right now on television."

Lauer just signed a reported $25 million-per-year contract to remain with Today, the No. 1-rated morning show, hammering out a deal in a span of 36 hours.

"Matt always sets the right tone," said Kotb. "He's one of those guys that when he interviews somebody, the tone is three-fourths of it, and he always nails it just right. You're kind of a student of his. ... The guy does it like breathing. I mean, for Kathie Lee and I, we drink -- and Matt does great interviews."