Al Roker Talks Turmoil At The Today Show, Morning Show Ratings & Working For Roger AIles
Legendary weatherman and author, Al Roker, joined Kilmeade & Friends in studio to talk about his new book, “The Storm of the Century-Tragedy, Heroism, Survival & The Epic True Story of America’s Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900”, as well as past turmoil on the Today show, the passing of Frank Gifford and working for Roger Ailes at CNBC.
Watch here:
About the book: “The Storm of the Century-Tragedy, Heroism, Survival & The Epic True Story of America’s Deadliest Natural Disaster: The Great Gulf Hurricane of 1900” is about the Gulf Hurricane of 1900, which is still the greatest natural disaster to hit the United States. Roker explained he was originally doing research for a book on the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and all his research kept going back to the Galveston storm of 1900 and from there Roker kept researching more about the Galveston storm and came upon amazing stories of survival and amazing facts and oral history about the storm
Turmoil at the Today Show when Ann Curry left and pressure on Matt Lauer
“At the time you don’t even know what to do, where to go or what to think. Then you calm down, we got a terrific executive producer and our guy Don Nash…our new news boss Deborah Turness….we have to be ourselves, we cant be Good Morning America, we can’t be CBS This Morning, we just have to be The Today Show and we have done that. Slowly but surely its coming back.”
When asked if he noticed the pressure wearing on Matt Lauer after Ann Curry left:
“No, that’s the amazing thing about the guy, he is a class act, a god friend and a loyal person…he just put his head down and did the work. If you watch him, I don’t think he gets enough credit for being the broadcaster and journalist he is because he can go from interviewing the president of the United States to cooking segments with just the right touch.”
Talking about the rest of the Today Show anchors:
“Savanah (Guthrie) has grown into her role, we have Natalie (Morales), we have Carson Daily who is doing a great job. Willie Geist, we just have this great bench of people”
Does Al Roker follow the morning show ratings closely?
“I don’t think we look at them every day but we look at the end of the week…. I like to know what’s happening ”
Working for Roger Ailes at CNBC:
“My first job in cable news, which was on CNBC, I was given a job by Roger Ailes, Roger AIles gave me a talk show, he is one of the best people I ever worked for, I love Roger Ailes.”
The Today Show closing the gap with Good Morning America:
“You are known for whatever it is you are known for. You guys have a brand on Fox & Friends and you are true to who you are and your audience, that’s what they want. They don’t want you to be The Today Show, they don’t want you to be Good Morning America… It’s the same (with us) Good morning America has their audience, we have our audience. The idea is to just be yourself.”
Josh Elliot coming to NBC:
“We went out to lunch a couple of times, I find the guy delightful…he is a very, very talented guy”
Where does Storm of the Century rank in his career:
“I am very proud of this book, I love history. When history and weather intersect, it really is something special.”
