“After 39 years, it happened. I overslept and missed a show. Missed #WUWA. But will be on time for @today,” Roker tweeted at a still-ungodly hour of the morning.
He fulfilled his promise, showing up at Rockefeller Center where colleagues Savannah Guthrie, Natalie Morales and Matt Lauer quizzed him about the incident.
“The alarm clock on my phone didn’t go off. Somebody asked, ‘What’s your back-up?’ For 39 years I didn’t need one,” Roker explained, joking that he had changed the name of his show to “Al, Wake Up!”
Roker was able to see the silver lining in the mishap, asking Twitter users to share their oversleeping stories. Lauer, meanwhile, startled some fans by coining the nickname “Rip Van Roker,” who mistook his mocking tweet for a message of condolence.
“Bill Karins’ thinking, ‘Yeah!’” said Roker, referring to the NBC News meteorologist who appears on “Early Today.”
A few hardended cynics have even suggested Roker’s sleep-in -- arriving just a day after his “Today” colleague Willie Geist also dozed through his early a.m. gig on “Morning Joe” -- was nothing but a publicity stunt.
But we like to think it’s proof that even professional morning people aren't always eager to hop out of bed.
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