NBC to Al Roker: Take It Down a Notch

NBC reportedly takes 'Today' weatherman to task for 'saying weird things'
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 20, 2014 10:42 AM CST
NBC to Al Roker: Take It Down a Notch
Meredith Vieira, right, and Al Roker, of the NBC "Today" television program, dress as fairy tale characters for their annual Halloween show in New York's Rockefeller Center on Oct. 31, 2008.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Looks like NBC management wasn't as impressed with Al Roker's record-breaking 34-hour weathercasting marathon as the rest of the world. NBC brass recently held an "Al Roker intervention" to tell the Today show weatherman to tone it down and stick to deciphering the Doppler after a series of "classic Roker-isms," as Page Six puts it. A source says that a meeting was held because "he was saying weird things and becoming too idiosyncratic. They asked him to act more like a traditional weatherman." According to the same source, Roker took it like a professional and is "playing ball."

Which might surprise some, considering some of the Roker-isms that Page Six refers to: On air, he referred to a woman's husband as her dad, spoke to Dateline NBC about the time he pooped in his pants at the White House (as TMZ gleefully shows), and made a seemingly nasty jab on Today after Ann Curry was suddenly booted from the program. Page Six quotes an NBC rep as saying, "Al would have had a comment, but it was inappropriate and over-the-top, so we decided we couldn't release it." (Remember when Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt picked Twitter fights with Al? Good times.)

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