NEWSBilly Bush Claims 'Toxic' Al Roker Was Set to Be Fired From 'Today' Before 'Access Hollywood' Star's Scandalous Donald Trump Interview Resurfaced
Billy Bush threw major shade at former costar Al Roker.
June 15 2026, Published 2:15 p.m. ET
Billy Bush attacked his former Today colleague Al Roker, labeling him as "toxic" and unprofessional.
Bush appeared on the June 12 episode of "The Nerve With Maureen Callahan" podcast, where he claimed the weatherman's "jovial" demeanor is just an act for the cameras.
Billy Bush Claims Al Roker Was Going to Be Fired From 'Today'
Billy Bush alleged a producer told him Al Roker was set to be axed from 'Today.'
Bush, 54, used three words to describe Roker, 71: "Territorial, vindictive and chronically unprepared."
Bush claimed that when he began co-hosting the third hour of the morning show with Roker in 2016, a producer told him to stick it out. He alleged the producer even confided in him: "Then we're gonna unload Al. We're gonna get him out of this deal. When this is up, we're going to get him off this hour because he is toxic and then we're going to find you [Bush] a forever partner and you'll do a two-person show."
Billy Bush alleged he was going to be the lead star on the third hour of 'Today' before his infamous interview with Donald Trump surfaced.
However, soon after, Bush's old conversation with Donald Trump for Access Hollywood — in which the president bragged about grabbing women by their genitals — was exposed, leading Bush to be axed from the network all together and Roker to stay put.
The scandal led to Bush being canceled by society, with the star once admitting he became suicidal due to the intense backlash.
Billy Bush Thinks Al Roker Tried to Get Him Cut
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Billy Bush called Al Roker 'mean' and 'vindictive.'
Even before the firing, Bush felt Roker and Matt Lauer "were territorial" and "definitely did not want me there. You could feel it. I could feel it in in the room with them," he admitted.
Bush alleged the weatherman tried to stir the pot, recalling how a staffer called him up to inform Bush that Roker "liked a tweet" that called Bush "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 true," he lamented.
Billy Bush said Al Roker 'doesn't like to share' success with his costars.
Bush thinks Roker was never reprimanded because of the star's "longevity."
"Why does Al Roker have such longevity?" podcast host Maureen Callahan asked, to which he replied, "People don't know how mean he is. He's mean."
'He's a Mean Person'
Al Roker allegedly once 'liked' a tweet calling Billy Bush 'a whitesplaining racist.'
"He's a mean person," Bush emphasized. "When you say rageful and all that, he's there, it's rage in there. There's jealousy and I talk about vindictiveness, but he's mean. He doesn't share the air. He sees somebody doing well on the Today Show and immediately it's 'take them down.'"
