Billy Bush didn’t mince words as he recalled what it was like to work with Al Roker.
The former Today show host, 54, blasted America’s Weatherman, 71, as “toxic” and “vindictive” in a scathing sit-down with Daily Mail columnist Maureen Callahan.
“The way I describe Al is three words: territorial, vindictive, and chronically unprepared,” he told Callahan’s The Nerve podcast. “He’s maybe the worst interviewer on television. He’s totally unprepared.”
Bush is the nephew of former President George H.W. Bush and the first cousin of former President George W. Bush. He joined Today in May 2016, but exited the morning newscast just months later, following the blowback to the vulgar conversation he had with Donald Trump in a now-notorious Access Hollywood tape.
Bush didn’t hide how he felt about Roker as he recounted his time on the Today show.
“The general manager of the show, Noah Oppenheim, told me, ‘You need to survive until March, and then we’re gonna unload Al. We’re gonna get him out of this deal. When his is up, we’re gonna get him off this hour because he is toxic. And then we’re gonna find you a forever partner and you’ll do a two-person show,’” he said.
Bush, who now hosts his own podcast, Hot Mics, said he took the job “seriously” and “prepared for every guest.”
“I knew everything. I was well-researched and I would get into a rhythm and Al would get jealous. He’s territorial, like, ‘Billy Bush has asked three questions in a row. It’s my turn,’” he said. “There is rage in there, there’s jealousy and I talk about vindictiveness, but he’s mean. He doesn’t share the air.”
“Johnny Carson had this great belief back in the day: If the person is shining—your guest or your person is shining—on your show, guess who gets the credit for it? You, whose name is on the show. Like, we all do well if someone’s doing well. Everybody wins,” he went on. “Not Al. Not Al. He sees somebody doing well on the Today show and immediately it’s, ‘Take them down. Take them down.’”
Representatives for Roker and NBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
NBC was said to have privately negotiated Bush’s exit from the Today show after he was caught on tape laughing and appearing to egg Trump on as the future president made vulgar comments about grabbing women “by the p---y.”
Marshall Grossman, an attorney for Bush, previously defended him to The Hollywood Reporter.
“If Billy had been passive or responded ‘Shut the f--- up’ to Trump, Billy would have been out of a job the next day,” he said at the time.
