The national reckoning with inappropriate behavior that has swept across Hollywood, politics, and media landed at the top of NBC News on Wednesday morning, as the network announced live on the Today show, the crown jewel in its news division, that it had fired its leading man, anchor Matt Lauer, over a sexual harassment allegation.

“We just learned this moments ago,” announced Savannah Guthrie, the anchor who, on any other morning, would be opening the broadcast next to Lauer. She steadied her voice and swallowed hard after she assured viewers that they would be covering this story as reporters and journalists. But the rawness came through as she read an official statement from NBC News Chairman Andy Lack about Lauer, her professional partner and personal friend: “On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer. It represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company's standards.” The statement from Lack noted that he had “reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”

Guthrie said she was “heartbroken” and “devastated” by the news. “We are grappling with a dilemma so many people have faced these last few weeks—how do you reconcile your love for someone with the revelation that they have behaved badly?”

While the news reverberated throughout the newsroom, the allegation against Lauer did not come as a complete surprise. For weeks, there have been rumors in media circles that Variety and The New York Times were working on stories about Lauer, one of the highest-ranking, highest-profile, and highest-paid people in television news. Still, the early reaction within 30 Rock on Wednesday morning was a sense of shell-shock. It is hard to overstate how important Today is to NBC News’s core business. Of the billion dollars in annual revenue generated by the three network morning shows, Today accounted for about half. And Lauer, for two decades, has been the beating heart of that franchise, commanding a reported $20 million and remaining a constant on air as his co-anchors, from Katie Couric to Meredith Vieira, Ann Curry, and Natalie Morales, moved on. “Matt Lauer is the most powerful person at NBC News, and it took some real courage to step up and say, ‘I’m going to come out and tell my story,’” Willie Geist, an anchor on MSNBC’s Morning Joe who worked alongside Lauer for years, said Wednesday morning.

While Hoda Kotb, who was pulled onto the Today show set to serve as emergency co-anchor, and Al Roker struggled to process the news, the shock spread throughout 30 Rock. One colleague I contacted for a reaction Wednesday morning simply responded, “Wow.” Another staffer told me that this may mean a huge shift for NBC. “I need to just curl up in a ball and hide under the covers,” they told me. Lauer, along with the rest of the Today show cast, was scheduled to host NBC’s annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony Wednesday night.