Matt Lauer Will Host Tonight’s Olympic Prime-Time Broadcast

Planning to watch the Olympics broadcast tonight on NBC? You won't see Bob Costas tonight. The New York Times has reported that the eye infection that has plagued Costas since the games began has intensified, and Matt Lauer is set to step in tonight.

“Both eyes were red and angry on Sunday and Monday,” Costas told the Times by telephone Tuesday morning. Matt Lauer, who is in Sochi as the co-host of “Today,” will fill in.

You may have noticed that Costas has been wearing glasses instead of his usual contacts the past few nights to minimize the discomfort.

“It was increasingly uncomfortable with each passing night, but I could cope with it,” he said. “But last night until today, it got to where I couldn’t look in the bathroom light without squinting and blinking and my eye watering.”

Costas plans to spend the next 24 hours in a dark room treating his eyes with drops and cold compresses, and hopes to return to the broadcast Wednesday night.

“If it were just a matter of discomfort, I’d be there,” he said. “Everybody’s been on the air at less than 100 percent or feeling lousy.”

His absence from tonight's Prime-Time Broadcast will end his streak of anchoring 157 consecutive Olympic broadcasts for NBC. The streak began at the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain in 1992.