Meredith Vieira

Matt Lauer: Meredith Can't Go Back to The View

By Stephen M. Silverman

Originally posted Thursday May 10, 2007 08:00 AM EDT

Vieira and Lauer Photo by: Virginia Sherwood / NBC

As names get tossed around for a possible replacement for Rosie O'Donnell on The View, there's one suggestion that Matt Lauer would hate to see.

"All I know is, I'm not letting Meredith [Vieira] go," Matt Lauer told PEOPLE of his Today cohost (and former View moderator) at the TIME Magazine 100 gala in New York City on Tuesday.

So who does Lauer think should get the gig on the other show? "I have no idea," he says, "but I know [Rosie] will be successful, and she'll get a lot of attention for it. She's provocative, smart and talented and those are three powerful weapons."

Lauer can breathe easy: Vieira isn't packing her bags. Though she told reporters at a Bone Marrow Foundation benefit gala in New York City on Tuesday that she would "love to" pay a visit to The View, she added: "Because of the competition between [NBC's] Today and [ABC's] GMA I'm not allowed to."

And who does she think will replace O'Donnell? "I don't know," she said. "They'll find somebody. They had to go through the same thing with me. They will find someone else, everybody's going to be fine."

O'Donnell, who is on the TIME 100 list but did not attend the gala, hasn't yet announced her next move, but the New York Post reports that her agent is shopping a talk show that will feature a segment similar to The View's "hot topics" portion. Stay tuned.

• With reporting by LAURA HAHN and KARA WARNER