Goodbye Meredith Vieira

Meredith Vieira's last day on NBC's 'Today' show: Filled with lots of laughs, tears and memories

Sykes/NBC

Meredith Vieira's last day as one of the hosts of NBC's 'Today' show was Wednesday.

Meredith Vieira's farewell to "The Today Show" this morning was understated, in much the same way Kate Middleton's wedding was understated. 

Vieira's long goodbye included the repeated clasping of hands, sentimental farewells, much talk of "family," taped tributes from NBC stars like Brian Williams and Jay Leno, extensive video of her "Today" highlight moments, and a finale designed to conjure the Canyon of Heroes, with a beaming-and-weeping Vieira walking and running through an adoring army of fans and colleagues. 

Vieira's departure dominated the core 7-9 a.m. segment of the top-rated morning show, getting the amount of attention normally given to, say, the Joplin tornados. 

The producers gave her so much airtime they ran out of material and by the final minutes of the show were rerunning footage from a few minutes earlier.  

Vieira herself looked somewhere between touched and overwhelmed, and she repeated what she has said in recent interviews, that leaving the show was "a hard decision, but the right decision." 

"I love you all very much," she told her colleagues, and they said the same in return. 

Weatherman/feature man Al Roker said he never worked with anyone who was "more about the program." 

News anchor Ann Curry, who will move up to Vieira's cohost role, said Vieira always connected strongly with viewers and that both her tenure and her departure taught us "to live our values." 

Cohost Matt Lauer, who remains on the desk as partners come and go, noted that he and Vieira spent much of their time joking and said, "If I really tell you how I feel, I'm going to turn into a blubbering idiot. 

"I marvel, with a talent as large as yours, how small your ego is."

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