The 'Today' weather anchor says his longer-than-scheduled-snooze happened because his alarm failed to do the job, jokingly suggesting that his 6 A.M. show should be renamed 'Al, Wake Up!'
- Aug 7, 2013
AceShowbiz - Well, there is always a first time for everything. On Tuesday, August 6, Al Roker failed to show up on the set of his Weather Channel early morning show, "Wake Up with Al". He overslept and missed the show for the first time in almost 40 years.
"After 39 years, it happened. I overslept and missed a show. Missed #WUWA. But will be on time for @today," Roker tweeted at 5:41 A.M. Once set on the NBC show, the weatherman couldn't resist making fun of himself in a sleepy Vine video.
Fellow "Today" anchors Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer also cracked jokes at Roker's expenses. The former called the oversleeping story "Almageddon" and the latter jokingly nicknamed his 58-year-old pal "Rip van Roker."
When asked by his co-hosts including Natalie Morales about what happened, Roker said, "Well, just you know...my phone didn't go off and somebody said, 'What's your backup?' and I said, 'For 39 years I didn't need one."
Roker additionally revealed that he stayed up late with his son Nicholas Albert, 11, the night before. The TV personality said he "just overslept," jokingly suggested that they should rename his 6 A.M. show "Al, Wake Up!"
While Roker seemed to be a good sport about the jokes that stemmed from his oversleeping and even invited his fans to tell their own stories, some apparently mistook the "Rip van Roker" nickname Lauer gave to his friend.
"They thought it was RIP Al Roker...but that's not what it said. If you read it carefully, that's not what it said," Lauer explained the confusion whether he meant "RIP" as in rest in peace. Guthrie chimed in, "It's just a deep sleep!"
Though Roker woke up in time for the "Today" show, his absence from the earlier show did make his fellow anchors on NBC worried. "We all start getting in a panic around here because we can set our clocks to when Al Roker comes in singing the 'A-Team' theme song," Morales joked.
