We all like surprises, but this one might have been a tad too early. Just in time for the second hour of NBC’s Today Show earlier this week, the anchors were stunned when they were caught off guard by a male streaker running the block outside their iconic Studio 1A windows at 30 Rock in New York City. The NSFW moment caught on live television and airing a bit of brief nudity on Monday morning began when co-host and anchor Craig Melvin was about to tease the upcoming stories when the streaker ran past the studio windows.
“Oh, there’s a naked runner,” Melvin casually responded as he turned around and back toward the cameras. It was only a few seconds until co-host and anchor Savannah Guthrie spotted the runner in his birthday suit. “There he is! There he goes! Where are your clothes?” she shouted. The team’s co-host Hoda Kotb also chimed in while waving and responding with a simple “bye” before jokingly speaking to him: “Get your clothes on!” Melvin, humorously losing his cool, asked, “What are you doing?!” Stunned by the display of boldness, Guthrie responded: “What is happening? Oh, my gosh, Hoda!” before turning back to the camera while trying to compose herself.
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While the streaker’s lower half was thankfully concealed, per FCC regulations and guidelines, NBC immediately jumped to a commercial break in fear of the streaker returning past their window in all their birthday suit glory. But ultimately, the moment drew laughs from the hosts and fans online. “So funny,” wrote one fan as another quipped the quick jump to commercial featured a somewhat ironic message in the first word of its commercial: “dignity,” the user wrote. Another viewer joked it was a “stripped-down version of the news.” Meanwhile, another sympathized, positing how the runner must have “lost a bet.”
This isn’t the first notable streaker of 2021. During the final moments of the Super Bowl this past February at the championship game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs, CBS broadcasters cut away when a rogue fan hit the football field while sporting what appeared to be a pair of black shorts and a hot pink women’s thong swimsuit. The particularly brazen fan snuck past security, slipping and sliding on the field to avoid their grasp but was eventually apprehended. Getting nearly body-slammed into the turf by a Hillsborough Sherriff’s Deputy, the Super Bowl streaker went down, later telling the Tampa Bay Times it was the “greatest moment” of his life despite breaking the law.
