Major league tension? Craig Melvin called out Al Roker for giving their audience “inaccurate weather forecasts” during an awkward interaction on the Today show on Wednesday, October 30, but a source tells Us Weekly exclusively that there was no foul play.
The NBC morning show hosts got into a seemingly heated discussion about Game 6 of the World Series between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston. Melvin, 40, a lifelong Nationals fan, argued with Roker, 65, about a controversial call that was made during the game, which the D.C. team won 7-2 on Tuesday, October 29.
“Did your team win?” Roker teased. “Pipe down!”
Today show coanchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb laughed along, literally caught in the middle of the bizarre on-camera confrontation.
“Why don’t you give us one of your inaccurate forecasts?” Melvin countered. Kotb, 55, and Guthrie, 47, appeared to think their colleague’s joke went too far, shaking their heads at the playful aside.
Melvin apologized as Roker approached the news desk.
Though it appeared uncomfortable to viewers, a source tells Us the interaction was just lighthearted fun. “Craig and Al play around like this all of the time on camera and are friends [and] hang out off camera,” the insider says.
The two are so close that Roker revealed his “man crush” on the newly-minted Today news anchor in a Variety essay earlier this month. “I’m just going to come right out and say this,” the weatherman wrote. “I have a man crush on Craig Melvin, and I don’t care who knows it.”
Roker went on to describe a road trip he went on with his colleague, and even praised Melvin’s ability to juggle his busy professional career with his personal life. Roker made a point to note Melvin’s dedication as a father, writing, “Who else but Craig Melvin takes off from his Today show duties to put his 5-year-old son on the school bus for the first day of school, then surreptitiously follows said bus ’til it gets to school and sees his little man safely inside?”
Melvin was formerly a correspondent for NBC News before being made a permanent cohost for the Today show’s third hour in January.
