For the second night in a row, Bob Costas has called Matt Lauer out of the bullpen to sub for him during NBC’s primetime coverage of the Olympics.
Costas is suffering from eye infections in both eyes. Doctors told him the infection should have gone away by the weekend, but that was not the case, as he looked worse on Monday before “reluctantly” taking the night off on Tuesday. Costas appeared on the Today show on Wednesday to say that he would miss another
“Actually, I don’t feel that bad,” he said of his current condition, “and the irony of it is, we’ve all felt worse than I feel right now and gone into work…I’ve done lots of ball games and events feeling much less than my best, but in this case it’s just involuntary. It’s an eye infection, and my eyes are so blurry and watery and become so light-sensitive that even in dim light they’re constantly tearing up.
“I can’t possibly be in the studio, so it’s not a case of just saying, ‘What the heck, I’ll go in not feeling well,” he added, breaking the news to Matt: “You’re coming out of the bullpen again tonight.”
When Lauer subbed for Costas on Tuesday, it was the first time since 1988 that someone other than Costas hosted NBC’s primetime coverage of the Winter or Summer Games.