Billy Bush Slams “Toxic” Al Roker, Claims He Was on the Brink of Being Fired

Billy Bush has described former Today colleague Al Roker as “toxic,” “mean,” and “unprepared,” criticizing the veteran weatherman’s treatment of him during his short-lived run on the NBC morning program in 2016.

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.

According to Bush, Roker’s behavior toward him was passive-aggressive from the start, dating back to the period when the two worked together while Bush was hosting Access Hollywood.

Bush said that tension did not ease after he officially joined Today in May 2016. At the time, however, Roker publicly appeared welcoming, writing in a May 2016 post on X: “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 said it has contacted Roker’s representatives seeking comment on the claims.

Bush also alleged that before his abrupt firing in October 2016 — after the resurfacing of the infamous 2005 recording in which President Donald Trump was heard bragging that his celebrity allowed him to grab women’s genitals — there had already been plans to remove Roker from the show by spring 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.’

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.”‘