New York magazine’e Joe Hagan files an impressively reported story on the trials and tribulations of NBC’s “Today” for this week’s cover. The PDF of the story was forwarded throughout the NBC News offices, studios and newsrooms yesterday in advance of its release online.

“It hit like a ton of bricks,” one NBC News staffer told TVNewser. “It was a rough day.”

The article tells the behind-the-scenes drama of what went down on NBC’s “Today,” including the departure of Ann Curry. There are also some new revelations, including just how close Matt Lauer came to joining ABC News. According to Hagan’s sources, all the parties involved believed that the deal was done, and that Lauer could be joining Katie Couric on her new ABC talk show:

And at the moment they informed him of Curry’s exit, Lauer himself appeared halfway out the door. Three months earlier, Lauer had been angered by a press leak that [Steve] Capus and [Jim] Bell were talking to Ryan Seacrest about possibly replacing him. (Lauer learned of the leak while being forced to stand outside the security gate at the White House Christmas party because Ann Curry had forgotten her driver’s license.) In trying to placate Lauer, Burke had given him a window to explore other jobs, but they made it clear that Seacrest was really just an insurance policy; they didn’t want Lauer to leave. But Lauer, possibly as a negotiating tactic, was taking leaving pretty seriously. He’d begun working closely with Zucker to develop an idea for ABC: the Katie Couric daytime talk show with Matt Lauer—together again. Lauer met with Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, ABC’s parent company, who made a strong effort to recruit Lauer.

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• FBN’s Charlie Gasparino talks to InvestorPlace about his new deal with the channel. Spoiler alert: “I love sticking it to CNBC whenever I can.”

• Bloomberg TV is airing a special edition of “Street Smart” tomorrow live from Hollywood hosted by Trish Regan. The special will feature  leaders like Showtime entertainment chief David Nevins and “Modern Family” EP Steve Levitan, talking the biz of Hollywood.

• Katie Couric talks to “Extra” about her cancer awareness work, and also weighs in on Matt Lauer at “Today.” “Everybody gets sort of criticized or whatever, maybe it’s Matt’s turn for whatever reason.”

On tomorrow’s edition of “Katie,” Katie Couric talks to her longtime friend Wendy Walker, who was also Larry King‘s producer at CNN. As it happens, the former CNN host decided to make a surprise visit to Couric’s show, where the two discussed the heavily disputed date they went on.

Yes, that date.

Couric: “I even remember what you ate, you ordered veal poached in chicken stock because you just had bypass surgery. That was hot.”

King: “We sat next to each other, you wanted to see my scar.”

WATCH:
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More than half a year after Ann Curry left the “Today” show, Matt Lauer opens up about exactly what happened behind the scenes. The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurtz spoke to Lauer, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke and former NBC News president Steve Capus about the decision.

The story paints the decision to remove Curry as a corporate one, and Lauer as valiantly trying to slow the process down. That said, Lauer acknowledged that their chemistry wasn’t great, and that he was reluctant about Curry before she officially became co-anchor. Curry had a guarantee in her contract that gave her the slot.

Then there was this bombshell about Katie Couric, now with ABC:

At the outset, though, Lauer would have preferred to anchor with someone else. Before Curry was formally promoted to co-host in 2011, Lauer quietly reached out to an old friend. He asked Katie Couric if she would be willing to return to Today, where they had ruled the time period for nearly a decade.

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UJA-Federation of New York will honor Bloomberg Media Group CEO Andy Lack at its annual broadcast, cable and film event next month.

Lack, who joined Bloomberg in 2008, will be presented with the award by Katie Couric. NBC’s Matt Lauer will serve as the emcee of the event at The Edison Ballroom on April 9. The annual award honors a professional in the field “for his or her philanthropic leadership and service to the New York Jewish community.”

Event chairs include NBC News Group chairman Patricia Fili-Krushel, CBS News anchor Charlie Rose, and ABC News president Ben Sherwood.

Catherine McKenzie, “Good Morning America” weekend senior producer, is leaving the network and joining Queen Latifah’s upcoming talk show as supervising producer.

McKenzie, who oversees the weekend edition of “GMA” and produces for the weekday show, was also part of the team that produced “Good Afternoon America” during its summer 2012 run. The other senior producer on that show, Ethan Nelson, recently joined Katie Couric‘s syndicated show.

McKenzie has been with ABC for the last 18 years: 4 at ABC, and 14 years at WABC. Deadline has the other staff announcements on Queen Latifah. The show launches this Fall.

• New York Festival International Television & Film Awards will honor CBS News Senior Executive Producer Susan Zirinsky with the 2013 TV & Film Lifetime Achievement Award. Zirinsky, thought to be the inspiration for Holly Hunter’s character in the 1987 film “Broadcast News,” began her career as a part-time production clerk in 1972.

• Katie Couric returns to Newtown, Connecticut for a special town hall episode of “Katie,” airing Monday. Nearly three months after the tragedy, Couric will show how the town is committed to ensure that their loved ones have not died in vain.

• Susan Lyne, who’s held executive positions at ABC, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Gilt, has been named CEO of AOL’s brand group made up of AOL sites including Huffington Post, Moviefone, Aol.com and Patch.

On Sunday ABC will air the 85th Academy Awards live from Hollywood, and a number of outlets are hoping to get a piece of the action. In addition to last night’s Katie Couric Oscar special, “Good Morning America” will be live from Hollywood on Monday to recap the awards.

CNN is getting into the game too, having Piers Morgan host a live Oscars pre-show on the red carpet from 6-7:30 PM ET, and a post-Oscars wrap-up live from 12-1AM. As we noted this morning, CBS News will have a primetime special Saturday night in partnership with Vanity Fair.

And on Monday morning at 11:30AM ET, TVNewser senior editor Alex Weprin will be joining Galleycat editor Jason Boog, FishbowlLA’s Richard Horgan, Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil and KCRW producer Darby Maloney to talk about the telecast during a Google+ Hangout.

You can watch the hangout here, and participate with the hashtag #mbhangout.

• A blizzard expected to hit the Northeast tomorrow and continue into Saturday is keeping the “Today” show in New York City. Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie had planned to anchor from Chicago Friday.

• ABC’s Katie Couric will host a “20/20″ Academy Awards special. “Mad About Oscar” features nominees Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Denzel Washington, and will air Feb. 20 at 10pmET/PT.

• CNN updated its iPhone app, with a must-have feature … and it sounds a little something like this. The feature is optional and can be turned off, if you get turned off by it.

• Katie Couric‘s daytime talk show is adding to its executive ranks after losing EP Jeff Zucker to CNN, according to THR’s Marisa Guthrie. Ethan Nelson and Matt Strauss have been named co-EPs. Nelson comes from ABC News, where he oversaw “Good Afternoon America,” while Strauss gets a bump from producer.

• Speaking of Katie Couric, Larry King responded to Couric’s recollection of a date they had together on Ora TV. He says it didn’t exactly turn out the way she said it did, and asked Jimmy Kimmel for equal time to give his side of the story.

• ABC News chief investigative producer Richard Esposito is leaving the network for NBC, according to Dylan Byers at Politico. He is yet another long-time ABC talent to depart in the last few weeks, following Chris Cuomo, Jake Tapper and Sharyn Alfonsi.