Al Roker had a warm welcome upon his return to the TODAY show after nearly two months. Co-stars Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb admitted they “basically pounced” on the 68-year-old weatherman as he made his way back to Studio 1A at 7:30 a.m. Friday morning, playing his special “pump up” song – the A-Team theme song – on speakers to celebrate the happy occasion.
Outside, Roker’s fans stood with signs reading “Welcome Back Al” in order to drive the message home as to how much he was missed on the popular NBC morning show over the past several weeks. “The countdown is over. After nearly two months away, Al is ready to rejoin us here in Studio 1A and we cannot wait to throw our arms around our ray of sunshine,” Guthrie announced at the start of the show. “It is a really special day … and I’m sorry because the tears are already flowing because Al Roker is back!”
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Roker got hugs from both Guthrie, 51, and Kotb, 58, as he walked out onto the stage to overwhelming applause. “To say we have missed you doesn’t even begin to describe it,” said Guthrie. “It is nothing without you here.” Kotb noted that even the crew was “weepy” at his return, to which Roker responded, “I have missed you guys so very much. You are my second family and it’s just great to be back – and wearing pants! It’s so much fun.”
Sitting down with his co-stars later in the show, Roker explained the numerous health issues that resulted in him being hospitalized twice since his last TODAY appearance on Nov. 4 before weeks of medical treatment. “Look, I had two complicating things,” he said. “I had blood clots, which they think came up after I had COVID in September. And then I had this internal bleeding going on; I lost half my blood. They were trying to figure out where it was.”
“And finally they went in, did the surgery and it ended up two bleeding ulcers, had to resection the colon, had to take out my gallbladder, redo my duodenum,” Roker continued, teasing, “I went in for one operation, I got four free. So I got that going for me.” Roker’s wife, ABC News journalist Deborah Roberts, told the audience that her husband is a “living breathing miracle” to have recovered as well as he did.
“Al was a very, very, very sick man,” Roberts continued. “And I think most people did not know that. You all had a chance to know that. And Savannah’s tearing up, I’m going to be tearing up but how two doctors led this brilliant team – it was a team – who had to figure out what was happening. He was a medical mystery for a couple of weeks. And it was the most tumultuous, frightening journey we have been on.”
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