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Matt Lauer to replace Bob Costas on Olympics for a second night

Matt Lauer will be filling in for Bob Costas for the second day in a row during NBC's Olympics coverage.
(Scott Halleran / Getty Images)
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Bob Costas still isn’t out of the woods yet with his eye infection troubles. The NBC sportscaster called into “Today” on Wednesday to let anchor Matt Lauer know that he’d be filling in once again during the network’s prime-time Olympics coverage.

“You’re coming out of the bullpen again tonight,” Costas told Lauer.

Costas arrived in Sochi, Russia, to cover the Winter Olympics with an infection in one eye, but by Monday, the infection had spread to the other eye, causing viewers to fear for Costas’ health (and complain a bit about how uncomfortable it was to look at).

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Despite feeling otherwise fine, Costas said he was physically incapable of doing his job.

“Actually, I don’t feel that bad, and the irony of it is, we’ve all felt worse than I feel right now and gone into work,” he said. “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.”

He further explained, “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.’ ”

Lauer got in a dig about needing to Lysol Costas’ dressing room, which followed up from his knock about needing to Purell Costas’ anchor chair before filling in. But Costas got him back on the air.

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“In return for this, I promise to step in on the next 10 ‘Steals and Deals’ and ‘Ambush Makeovers,’” Costas said.

Lauer, the ball’s in your court.

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