Al Roker Surprises His ‘Today' Colleagues Live with Early Return After Knee Surgery
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“This one has been the toughest one yet," the weatherman told his 'Today' co-anchors of his knee replacement
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Today anchors Sheinelle Jones, Craig Melvin, and Dylan Dreyer were pleasantly surprised when their colleague Al Roker made an unexpected appearance on the program Thursday.
Roker, 68, shocked his co-anchors just when they were about to segue into a commercial after a National Wine Day segment.
The weatherman — initially off-camera — yelled, "Ah ha ha ha!" prompting Dreyer, 41, to scream and set her wine glass down. Shortly after, the hosts realized it was Roker, before embracing him with hugs.
Melvin, 44, asked the Queens, New York, native, "What's up, brother? Good to see you!"
He added: "We weren't expecting that — clearly!”
Roker, who wore a navy blazer, a pink polo shirt, pink pants, black-and-white sneakers and a white fedora hat, walked gingerly over to his cohosts with a cane.
Today reported that Jones, 45, said they were expecting to see Roker that day, but not live on the show. Roker revealed he would return to the morning series next Tuesday.
"I am doing fine. It is good to see all of you. I'm going to be honest. I've had a number of replacements, knee replacements. It’s not a big surprise,” Roker said. “This one has been the toughest one yet because they had to take out the old one, which had some complications, and then put in a new one.”
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Earlier this month, Roker made a virtual appearance on Today to update viewers on the status of his recovery after undergoing knee surgery.
"This one is a little more complicated because it's what they call a revision; it was a replacement of a replacement, so they had to take stuff out, put stuff in, so it was a bit of a bear," Roker revealed at the time. "So we've just been kind of hanging out. Chilling out, not doing anything — which I know, a lot of people find hard to believe, but in fact, that is the case."
The weatherman's wife, Deborah Roberts, gave an update on Roker’s health on Instagram on May 21, where she told her followers that Roker is "doing pretty well but moving a little slowly."
"It makes it slow going, it makes it a little tougher," she added. "It was a harder surgery, so it's a little bit harder to snap back from but he's doing pretty well, moving a little slowly."
The journalist also commented on Roker's return to the NBC show, adding, "Al is chomping at the bit to try to get back to work, but the doctor just wants him to take it slowly so that he can continue to heal well. So on Al's behalf and our family's behalf thank you so much and I'm sure he'll be popping up soon."
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