Al Roker.Photo: Nathan Congleton/TODAY
Al Rokerreturned totheTodayshowon Tuesday, for his first show since undergoing knee surgery.
The longtime weatherman — who has been a staple on the NBC morning program since 1996 — was back in front of the weather board, reporting on the national temperatures as usual.
“Look who’s here! Mr. Roker, we are so happy to have you back in our studio,“Todayco-anchorSavannah Guthriesaid at the top of the show before joking, “You’ve got a brand knew knee! Does it still have that new knee smell?”
“I don’t want to go there,” teased Roker, dressed in a light tan suit. “We’re putting it to use. … It’s all good, all good.”
“We’re so happy to have you back, Al,” added co-anchorHoda Kotb.
“Good to see ya, good to see ya,” said Roker.
Roker, 68, went under the knife to repair his left knee on May 9.
“This one is a little more complicatedbecause 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 explained on May 15, while giving an update on his health in a virtual appearance onToday. “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.”
At the time, Roker said he still had some work to do before returning toToday, including “three days a week of physical rehab that’ll go on for a few months.”
His wife,Deborah Roberts, spoke more about Roker’s condition onInstagramon 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 toToday, 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.”
This was Roker’s second knee replacement surgery. The first was in April 2022, while the second had to be delayed when Roker was hospitalized due toblood clots in his leg and lungs.
He was out of work for two months following the health scare, before returning toTodayin early January. “Look, I had two complicating things,” Roker saidthen. “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.”
“I went into for one operation, I got four free,” joked Roker. “So I got that going for me.”
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Meanwhile, Monday wasn’t the first time Roker has been around hisTodaycolleagues since his knee operation. Not only didhe make a surprise appearance on May 25’s3rd Hour of Today— to drop in on his co-hostsSheinelle Jones,Craig Melvin, andDylan Dreyer— but he also gathered with the fullTodayfamily later that day for a photoshoot.
“Talk about just what the doctor ordered,” Roker wrote on Instagram, captioning a Reel of pictures from the event that also featuredWillie Geist,Jenna Bush Hager,Kristen Welker,Peter Alexanderand Carson Daly. “Seeing myTodaypals…for a fun shoot today was soooo much fun.”
Roker has beenToday’s premiere weather anchor since 1996, and previously made appearances as a substitute weathercaster from 1990 to 1995, filling in for the lateWillard Scottbefore his semiretirement.
“We are family,” he added in hashtag, also including the 1979 Sister Sledge song in his post.
Todayairs weekdays begging at 7 a.m. ET on NBC.
source: people.com
