Tag: hoda kotb

Kelly Rowland walks off ‘Today,’ leave Hoda Kotba scrambling

Kelly Rowland dramatically waked out of NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday morning after the star thought her dressing room was not up to snuff, sources exclusively tell Page Six.

The R&B singer and actress was a guest on the 8a.m. hour of “Today,” and was then expected to fill in for Jenna Bush Hager in the fourth hour as guest host of “Today with Hoda & Jenna.”

Rowland, however, dropped out at the 11th hour because her dressing room wasn’t up to par, and she left Hoda Kotb scurrying to find a replacement, sources told us.

Rowland appeared with Savannah Guthrie on the 8a.m. hour of “Today” to promote her Netflix film “Mea Culpa.” TODAY/NBC

“Kelly and her team were not happy. They did not like the dressing room, so they decided to pull her off the show, leaving [Kotb] without a guest host for the 10 a.m. hour,” a source familiar with the situation told Page Six.

Rowland was on the show to promote her new Tyler Perry-produced Netflix movie, “Mea Culpa,” in which she stars and is also a producer.

Rowland’s abrupt exit left “Today” insiders perplexed because, “She’s beloved at ‘Today.’ She was getting the full hour, and Hoda’s the biggest hype woman on the planet! It made no sense,” a source said.

Rowland and her team played a dramatic game of “musical dressing rooms,” we hear.

Rowland’s team inquired about a dressing room that was occupied by Jennifer Lopez. TODAY/NBC

They inquired about a green room upstairs because “they didn’t like the one she was in.”

Unfortunately, the upstairs room was occupied by Jennifer Lopez, who arrived to the studio prior to Rowland to promote her new album, “This Is Me… Now,” and her accompanying film project, “The Greatest Love Story Never Told.”

Dressing rooms at “Today” are known to be some of the smallest in the TV industry — practically “glorified closets,” as one source put it.

Rita Ora filled in for Rowland at the last minute.

“They’re not nice. It’s the oldest building. There are major space limitations, [it’s] not glamorous. It’s not fresh flowers, and candles and gourmet food. It’s basically [a] white box,” shared the TV source.

Still, we’re told “Today” producers offered Rowland several other options, including multiple talent dressing rooms and some much larger utility makeup and hair areas.

“They didn’t want that. [The show] basically offered up as much as possible, but they weren’t happy with it, so they walked and they left,” the insider said.

Rowland pulled out of guest-hosting with Hoda Kotb. NBC
Kotb was left in the lurch, but found a last-minute replacement. Nathan Congleton/NBC

Thankfully for Kotb, singer Rita Ora volunteered and filled in for Rowland.

We hear she happily took a dressing room similar to the one briefly occupied by the former Destiny’s Child star.

Reps for “Today,” and Rowland, did not comment.

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Hoda Kotb Says Jenna Bush Hager Was “The Ringleader” At The ‘Today Show’ Holiday Party: “I’m Sort Of Ready To Go To The Sober Living House Where My Parents Live”

We wish we were invited to this party! Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager were coming off of a “holiday party extravaganza” during Monday’s (Dec. 11) broadcast when they dished about the Today Show holiday party that was held over the weekend.

Bush Hager joked that, after this weekend, “I’m sort of ready to go to the sober living house where my parents live.”

Kotb set the scene for the holiday party where all of the Today Show anchors were in attendance, according to a picture from the evening.

“Our Today Show crew got together for drinks. Now, this is how we party,” she said. “3 p.m. we meet, [and] for most people it was a wrap by 5 p.m., 5:30. That’s two hours of sitting there and talking and drinking. For others…” She trailed off before turning to Bush Hager and saying, “I heard you were the ringleader.”

Bush Hager appeared scandalized by the accusation. “I was NOT the ringleader,” she replied.

But Kotb continued. “I heard from sources that they said, ‘Let’s get the check.’ It was late, and sources say that you said, ‘One more round!’”

Her co-host denied the accusation, insisting that she “left first” that evening. “There was four of us standing, I won’t mention any names,” she began explaining. Kotb interjected to name the people in question, saying that Savannah Guthrie, Sheinelle Jones and Dylan Dreyer were also still there.

“That’s correct,” Bush Hager admitted. “It sounds like other people are narcing out.”

Bush Hager went on to say that she “did what Hoda does best” and left the party early because she “needed to get home.”

But the topic was still on Bush Hager’s mind later on, when she brought their conversation back to the accusations. “I am going to get back at those people who blamed it on me because I don’t appreciate it,” she said. “By the way, we were still home by 7 p.m.”

It sounds like she certainly knows how to keep the party going!

Today with Jenna and Hoda airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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‘I’m on fire … Oh, my God’

Jay Leno is recounting his dramatic rescue by a close friend when he suffered severe burns in a horrifying freak accident last month.

The funnyman and car fanatic revealed what caused the fiery explosion in the 72-year-old former “Tonight Show” host’s garage, where the incident happened on Nov. 12.

“It was a 1907 White Steam Car. The fuel line was clogged, so I was underneath it,” he said of working on the vintage car — alongside close friend David Killackey — during a talk with “Today” anchor Hoda Kotb. “It sounded clogged and I said, ‘Blow some air through the line,’ and so he did.”

Leno said the fuel line made a noise, “and suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas.

“And then the pilot light jumped and my face caught on fire,” he recalled.

Luckily, Leno said Killackey acted fast.

Jay Leno spent 10 days in a Los Angles burn center.
TODAY

“I said to my friend, I said, ‘Dave, I’m on fire.’ And Dave’s like, ‘All right.’ I said, ‘No, Dave, I’m on fire.’ And then, ‘Oh, my God.’ Dave, my friend, pulled me out and jumped on top of me and kind of smothered the fire,” Leno recalled.

Leno was taken to Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles, where he was treated for third-degree burns on his face, chest and hands during a 10-day stay. Leno also received skin grafts and another surgical procedure.

Cameras captured Leno being treated in a hyperbaric chamber.
Inside Edition

But he was all smiles in a photo with clinic staff on Nov. 21 when he was released from the center. Leno wasted no time getting back to his classic cars as he was spotted cruising around Los Angles in several of his whips the very next day.

Photos from July 2010 show Jay Leno driving around Los Angeles in his 1908 White Steam Car, which exploded in a garage fire.
SplashNews.com

He even performed a comedy set to a sold-out crowd at Comedy Magic Club in California’s Hermosa Beach just over two weeks after the incident. He had some trouble parking, though, and hit a cop car in the process.

Leno and Kotb’s full conversation will air Wednesday on “Today.”

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Savannah Guthrie And Hoda Kotb Missing From ‘Today Show’: They’re On Vacation

A tense nation hangs on tenterhooks as we enter Day 3 of Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb’s absence from The Today Show. Are the duo missing because of a rumored ongoing feud? Perhaps they both overslept? Or perhaps something more nefarious is happening, like Kotb is hunting Guthrie for sport, a crazy thing to even suggest? However, in new developments, a nationwide manhunt that never actually happened but I would like to think did has concluded that they’re both on vacation, since it’s the last week of August and lots of people go away on vacation.

“Guthrie and Kotb are away on vacation,” said Tommy Lee Jones’ character from The Fugitive and US Marshals, in a speech I imagine would have happened if Jones’ character were a real person and anyone would have wasted the time to confirm something abundantly obvious. “The search is over.”

Fans of the daily talker have been buzzing with rumors of a behind-the-scenes feud between Guthrie and Kotb, something the hosts have seemingly take time to squash. However, in an actual quote that I did not make up, today’s Today Show co-hosts addressed the absence right at the top of the 7am hour once Guthrie and Kotb’s names flashed on screen, noting that “like a lot of people” they’re taking time off here at the end of the summer.

So there you go: mystery solved. In fact, to delve even further into this mystery, Guthrie seems to be home watching the US Open, based on her Instagram posts:

More than likely, the duo will be back on air next week after Labor Day, and we can stop wasting non-existent government resources looking for them. Because when it comes down to it, as Tommy Lee Jones’ character actually says famously in The Fugitive: “I don’t care.”



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