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NY Post, NBC

Drama at NBC’s ‘Today’: Is the Network Upset With Al Roker?

Aug 24, 2016  •  Post A Comment

Insiders at NBC’s morning flagship “Today” are reportedly less than thrilled about an incident involving show mainstay Al Roker. The New York Post’s Page Six cites sources saying that behind the scenes, some at the show were embarrassed by the on-air confrontation between Roker and Billy Bush over the Ryan Lochte scandal.

“The lovable weatherman flipped his lid during an on-air conversation with Billy Bush about the swimmer’s shape-shifting story about being the victim of an armed robbery during the Rio Olympic Games, angrily saying, ‘He lied. He lied to you, he lied to Matt Lauer, he lied to his mom, [and] he left his teammates hanging while he skedaddled,'” the story reports.

The Post quotes a source saying: “There were several producers and talent who were left trying to explain Al’s over-the-top behavior. Several insiders found themselves wanting to distance themselves from his response.”

But an NBC executive who’s quoted anonymously in the story offered a different perspective, saying: “This is not true. No one feels this way. In fact, everyone here is happy — specifically with the ‘Today’ show’s great ratings.”

Here’s a clip of the Roker-Bush debate …

16 Comments

  1. Hands OFF Al Roker.

    Al was, (and is), right to be out-of-sorts with the inappropriate actions of Lochte.

    Everybody, except the US Olympic Committee, has pussyfooted around the issue.

    Thanks, Al, for a fitting, human expression to Lochte’s sordid lies.

  2. Al Roker saw it for what it was and spoke up. NBC, to protect their Olympics investment, discounted it and should not be mad but congratulate Roker on insisting that NBC News, which produces Today, has a journalistic integrity to uphold, and should not just be a promotion vehicle for the olympics.

  3. That’s a “meltdown” ?? Al Roker just shared a difference of opinion with Bush. He didn’t “meltdown” !!
    Come on! Lay off Al Roker !! RLM ! RLM ! RLM ! (Roker’s Life Matters) !!

  4. Obviously Al can’t stand people who lie except if they are the president or a former secretary of state. They can lie to everyone and anyone including the swimmer’s mother and the mothers of the murdered Americans in Benghazi. Go Al!

    • Oh shut up! Not every single solitary thing is about Benghazi. I’m sick to death of all your types whining..
      Benghazi, for good or bad, haooened. Soldiers join the military knowing that they have but one basic duty….to do their duty unquestioned .
      By your way of thinking, all the mothers of all the servicemen who died at Pearl Harvor should have been bellowing unto the blue heavens! There are certainly enough Benghazi type “conspiracies” about who knew what before Pearl Harbor.
      Did these mothers complain, no, they stood behind their leaders at a time when conscription was already underway.
      Our military is a volunteer one and we love our soldiers for volunteering; they would be embarrassed by their mothers actions.
      Just shut up already!

    • Oh shut up! Not every single solitary thing is about Benghazi. I’m sick to death of all your types whining..
      Benghazi, for good or bad, happened.. Soldiers join the military knowing that they have but one basic duty….to do their duty unquestioned .
      By your way of thinking, all the mothers of all the servicemen who died at Pearl Harvor should have been bellowing unto the blue heavens! There are certainly enough Benghazi type “conspiracies” about who knew what before Pearl Harbor.
      Did these mothers complain, no, they stood behind their leaders at a time when conscription was already underway.
      Our military is a volunteer one and we love our soldiers for volunteering; they would be embarrassed by their mothers actions.
      Just shut up already. What a troll and what unto the blue heavens has Benghazi to do wit the Olynpics and this coward (who caught the first plane “out”) and his lies.
      Did you not notice that yet another BUSH supports lies as truths (weapons of mass destruction indeed!).
      Now that Billy Boy has been caught up in this Trunp controversy, how do you think a mother, “Benghazied” or not, thinks of what he thinks about women. If that doesn’t shut you up nothing will.

    • Oh shut up! Not every single solitary thing is about Benghazi. I’m sick to death of all your types whining..
      Benghazi, for good or bad, happened. Soldiers join the military knowing that they have but one basic duty….to do their duty unquestioned .
      By your way of thinking, all the mothers of all the servicemen who died at Pearl Harvor should have been bellowing unto the blue heavens! There are certainly enough Benghazi type “conspiracies” about who knew what before Pearl Harbor.
      Did these mothers complain, no, they stood behind their leaders at a time when conscription was already underway.
      Our military is a volunteer one and we love our soldiers for volunteering; they would be embarrassed by their mothers actions.
      Just shut up already! Now that Billy Boy has been exposed as a co-sexist in that ness called Trump’s world, what would your “Brngazued” mothers have to say?
      Really I can not even follow your thought process. At times you seem to be in the side of yet another BUSH who champions lies (weapons of mass destruction indeed), calling out Al for battle against every lie BUT those if Ibsna & Clinton, yet you end with “…Go Al.”
      Are you trying to be satirical (?) or are you or are you just scatologicsl?

  5. Billy Bush has spent years looking the other way as the host of Access Hollywood. He’s probably never said anything negative on air about any celeb. Billy Bush, grow up. You’re now on a news show so you can have an honest opinion for once. Stop looking the other way.

  6. Kudos to Al Roker who had the balls to ignore PC and speak the truth.

  7. Yup. Although “Reality Check” is spot on. Where’s Al’s outrage when it comes to Hillary & Barak???

  8. Well done Al, you get all bullshit when a young athlete makes a small mistake but your double standard comes into play when it comes to politicians especially when they are liberals!
    Usually people who complain the loudest about these things are covering something up.
    Basic simple psychology here, lets uncover some off your lies which you are hiding.
    Stone throwers like Al Roker are so easy to expose for their phones attitudes.

  9. It’s Page Six, why would TVWeek even care? It’s all clickbait anyway.

    dL

  10. Really NBC executives … REALLY? “Embarrassed”? You should be embarrassed that you didn’t support Al Roker who was displaying journalistic integrity. Let’s just do a reality check … Lochte repeatedly LIED!

  11. Obviously most of the people posting are right-wing Trump supporters who can’t process situations that aren’t black and white extremist. No gray areas allowed apparently. No nuance of mitigating circumtances tolerated by these posters. I can’t even watch this clip it’s so embarrassing. Where does Al Roker get the a** to moralize about a situation that was still, frankly, in flux at the time. Gunnar Bentz’s eye witness statement hadn’t come out. Lochte didn’t “skedaddle” away from Rio abandoning his teammates – he was always booked to fly out of Rio on Tuesday. So Al Roker, by misrepresenting Lochte’s travel plans, are YOU embellishing or lying? There were “security officers” and they did have guns. I’m sorry but if I’m travelling in a South American country with a history of death squads and desaparecidos, the mere sight of a gun by someone demanding money from me in Portuguese would be enough to make hot pi** run down my legs if I hadn’t just relieved myself against a wall at the back of a service station which was uncool but at best a misdemeanor. The bigger point is that Billy Bush was trying to inject rational and thoughtful analysis into the broadcast while his self-righteous, moralizing, over-zealous, indictment-happy co-hosts were hysterically ranting, pre-empting Bush’s attempts to slow down, while they continued to persecute an American swimmer before all the facts were in. Roker may have kickstarted the “outcry” over what eventually became a witch-hunt on the guy who lost endorsements and is now possibly facing a trip back to Rio to rake his frat boy shenanigans over the coals again. I can’t stomach the Today Show b/c of its smug, good-clean-fun, vanilla-flavored camaraderie which feels fake and canned and manufactured – until that is the mean-spirited side of one of the “lovable” anchors lurches out in a really ugly way, revealing his true nature. Does Ryan Lochte’s gorgeous looks have anything to do with it? Was he similarly outraged about Tiger Woods? I don’t know. I wonder.

  12. I thought Al was the weather guy. Please, go back to the maps.

  13. I’m not putting up with you on putting All Roker in front with his offensive Banter !! Put him in for Weather and Quickly Exit and quit trying to intergrate his Offensive Self onto America for he Represents NBC ! No Bull Crap!! Hedge it Off before it Gets ugly! I don’t want to hear America warned you!!

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