What To Know
- Billy Bush criticized Today co-host Al Roker as “mean,” “vindictive,” and “toxic” during a podcast interview.
- Bush, who had a brief stint on Today in 2016, alleged that Roker was passive-aggressive and chronically unprepared.
- The former Access Hollywood host also claimed NBC executives were planning to remove Roker in 2017.
Billy Bush unloaded on Today co-host Al Roker during a recent appearance on The Nerve With Maureen Callahan, describing the veteran weather reporter as “mean,” “vindictive,” and “toxic.”
Speaking to Callahan on Friday (June 12), Bush opened up about his short stint co-hosting the third hour of the NBC morning show in 2016. The former Access Hollywood host claimed Roker has always been passive-aggressive towards him, saying, “There’s something about me in particular, forever, that was [he] likes me but fears me, didn’t want me anywhere near.”
Bush said there are three words he has to describe Roker: “territorial,” “vindictive,” and “chronically unprepared,” which is actually four words.
He went on to say that he and Roker worked together on the third hour, but said he knew it wouldn’t ever be successful because “[Roker is] maybe the worst interviewer on television… he’s totally unprepared.”
Bush also claimed that NBC exec Noah Oppenheim told him at the time that he just had to “survive until March [of 2017]” and then they were going to “unload” Roker and “get him out of this deal because he’s toxic.”
The longtime TV host never made it to March because he was fired in October 2016 after the infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape leak, which showed Donald Trump talking with Bush and bragging about how his fame allowed him to grab women’s genitals.
Bush also said that Roker would frequently like tweets of people criticizing him, including one social media user who described Bush as “a whitesplaining racist.”
“I’m the new guy and this dude’s liking tweets from people that are calling me things that are career-ending and awful and not f****** true!’ Bush stated.
Bush went on to say that “People don’t know how mean [Roker] is,” adding, “He’s mean, he’s mean, he’s a mean person. When you say rageful and all that, yeah, there is rage in there. There’s jealousy, and I talk about vindictiveness, but he’s mean. He doesn’t share the air.”
“When I got there, a younger guy with a full head of hair, who the women on the staff genuinely liked a lot… and that was infuriating to him,” he continued, noting that Roker doesn’t like to see somebody “doing well” on the Today show.
Roker has not responded to Bush’s comments as of writing.
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This story originally appeared on TV Insider
