Billy Bush painted his former Today show costar Al Roker as ‘toxic,’ ‘mean’ and ‘unprepared’ while slamming the stalwart weatherman for how he treated him during his brief 2016 stint on the NBC morning show.
The media personality, 54, appeared on Friday’s edition of The Nerve With Maureen Callahan where he called Roker, 71, ‘territorial, vindictive and chronically unprepared’ at work.
Bush said Roker was passive-aggressive with him from the get-go, beginning when he collaborated with him during his time hosting Access Hollywood.
The hostility continued in their interactions when he joined the Today show in May of 2016, the TV personality said. (In a May 2016 post on X, Roker wrote, ‘A big welcome to @billybush joining our crazy family. Tradition: New guy buys dinner.’)
‘He does this all the time,’ Bush said. ‘There’s something about me in particular, forever, that was [he] likes me but fears me, didn’t want me anywhere near.’
The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Roker for further comment on the story.
Billy Bush, 54, painted a nasty picture of former Today show costar Al Roker as ‘toxic,’ ‘mean’ and ‘unprepared’ as he slammed the stalwart weatherman for how he treated him during his brief stint on the NBC morning show
Roker, 71, was described by his one-time colleague as ‘territorial, vindictive and chronically unprepared.’
Bush said that prior to his sudden October 2016 dismissal on the show – after he was heard on the infamous 2005 tape in which President Donald Trump boasted how his fame enabled him to grab women’s genitals – plans were in the works to jettison Roker by the spring of 2017.
Bush recalled how he and Roker worked together on the third hour of the Today show, which he predicted ‘would never be a successful hour, because [Roker is] maybe the worst interviewer on television.’
He said NBC exec Noah Oppenheim told him that he needed to survive until March of 2017, at which time NBC officials planned to ‘unload’ the ‘toxic’ Roker and ‘get him out of this deal.’
The plans never came to fruition, Bush said, as ‘the Trump thing’ cut short his tenure on the network program.
Bush said Roker irritated him by liking social media posts that were negative about him – in one case, when a social media user 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***ing true!’ Bush said.
Matt Lauer – who would lose his lead anchor job on the show in 2017 amid sexual misconduct allegations – was not a welcoming presence to Bush on the program either.
Bush said that while his NBC bosses were behind him, it was clear that Lauer and Roker ‘definitely did not want me there.’
Roker welcomed Bush to the Today show with a reminder that the ‘new guy buys dinner’
Al Roker, Billy Bush, actor James Spader and Tamron Hall seen on the September 22, 2016 edition of Today
Bush, appearing on Friday’s edition of The Nerve With Maureen Callahan, said dealing with Roker generally made for an unpleasant experience
He recalled of the tension, ‘You could feel it … I could feel it in the room with them.’
Bush chalked up to NBC’s tolerance of Roker and his antics to the TV star’s longevity, with more than three decades on the program.
‘People don’t know how mean he is – 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.’
Bush noted how legendary late Tonight Show host Johnny Carson believed that a strong appearance from others on his program reflected well on him and the show itself.
‘Like, we all do well, everybody wins – not Al,’ Bush said. ‘He sees somebody doing well on the Today Show, and immediately it’s, “Take them down.”‘
Asked by Callahan why Roker was so angry when considering his successful career, Bush said that the weatherman’s fury, rage and anger often got the best of him.
‘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,’ Bush said.
‘And when I got sacked and sent out of there, all the women were destroyed, and the men, which is Al and Matt … they were, “Get him out of here.”‘
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