NBC NBC reporter Matt Lauer, left, with Randal McCloy Jr. and Anna McCloy. Click photo for larger image.

NBC's Matt Lauer has won the first TV interview with Randal McCloy Jr., the sole survivor of January's Sago Mine accident.

Lauer taped the interview with McCloy, 26, in West Virginia today. It will air Thursday on "Today" (7 a.m., WPXI). McCloy has spent the past three months since the accident recovering and in rehabilitation.

After the Sago Mine explosion on Jan 2., it took more than 40 hours for rescue teams to reach McCloy and his 12 co-workers, who died of carbon monoxide poisoning. He was carried out with severe internal injuries caused by exposure to the carbon monoxide and remained in a coma for weeks.

On March 15, McCloy visited his Simpson, W.Va., home for a few hours, his first visit since the accident. He continues to stay at the HealthSouth Mountainview Regional Rehabilitation Hospital, where he faces months of rehabilitation to recover from brain damage and other injuries.

Lauer began his TV career in 1979 as a producer and later a reporter at WOWK-TV in Huntington, W.Va.