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Billy Bush calls Al Roker toxic amid scandal.

Billy Bush painted his former Today show costar Al Roker as 'toxic,' 'mean' and 'unprepared' while slamming the stalwart weatherman for how he treated him durin...

Bintano News

June 16, 2026

Billy Bush painted his former Today show costar as 'toxic,' 'mean' and 'unprepared' while slamming the stalwart weatherman for how he treated him during his brief 2016 stint on the NBC morning show.

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.

Bush said Roker was passive-aggressive with him from the get-go, beginning when he collaborated with him during his time hosting Access Hollywood.

The hostility continued in their interactions when he joined the Today show in May of 2016, the TV personality said. (In a May 2016 post on X, Roker wrote, '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 has reached out to representatives for Roker for further comment on the story.

Billy Bush, 54, painted a nasty picture of former Today show costar Al Roker as 'toxic,' 'mean' and 'unprepared' as he slammed the stalwart weatherman for how he treated him during his brief stint on the NBC morning show

Roker, 71, was described by his one-time colleague as 'territorial, vindictive and chronically unprepared.'

Bush said that prior to his sudden October 2016 dismissal on the show - after he was heard on the infamous 2005 tape in which President boasted how his - plans were in the works to jettison Roker by the spring of 2017.

Roker welcomed Bush to the Today show with a reminder that the 'new guy buys dinner'

Al Roker, Billy Bush, actor James Spader and Tamron Hall seen on the September 22, 2016 edition of Today

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.'

'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."'

Billy Bush calls Al Roker toxic amid scandal.

'People don't know how mean he is - he's mean, he's mean, he's a mean person.

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