Bob Costas will return to anchor desk on Monday, Matt Lauer handles Sunday night

Bob Costas will return to NBC's primetime anchor desk on Monday night, the network announced.

Matt Lauer will handle Sunday night's coverage, finishing off a six-night period that Costas missed due to a bad eye infection. Lauer handled the first three nights of pinch-hit duty, handed off to Meredith Vieira for Friday and Saturday and will now complete the handoff back to Costas.

Costas had hosted 157 straight primetime broadcasts for NBC dating back to 1992, but will have to start his streak all over again. On the bright side, it would appear his eye is looking at least a little better according to this tweet from NBC PR on Sunday afternoon:

Costas' absence created some opportunity for his NBC colleagues. Vieira, Lauer's former Today show teammate, became the first woman to serve as the solo host of a primetime Olympics broadcast on an American network. Lauer himself had a busy week as he also pulled his regular duty as host of the Today show.

For those begging to know, yes, Bob Costas' eye has been one of the bigger deals of this Olympic Games. In fact, "bob costas eye" has been a more popular search term than "bob costas" since his red left eye made its first appearance on Feb. 7.

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Kevin Kaduk

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