Craig Melvin has admitted to making an error on live TV that almost led to the Today Show being sued.
The broadcast journalist, 46, made the admission while answering questions for the Ask Me Anything segment of their Fan Fest alongside Savannah Guthrie, Carson Daly and guest Andy Cohen. One of the questions the presenters were asked was about their most embarrassing on-air bloopers.
Craig, who joined the Today team in 2018 as a news anchor and then stepped in to host the first hour of the show when Hoda Kotb left, confessed one of his errors was claiming that a brand’s food had killed eight people, when it actually had only made them sick. Describing the blunder, he said, “It’s one that almost got us sued. But there was a food recall years ago, when I was doing weekends.
“I read that the particular brand’s food had killed, like, eight people, and the brand had not killed eight people. They had made eight people sick.” Andy was shocked at the admission and replied, “That’s bad.”
Carson, who has worked on the show since 2013, said his most embarrassing moment was mispronouncing Leonardo DiCaprio’s name. He admitted, “One of my snafus reading a story [was] when I was new here too. I wasn’t used to the teleprompter and said – the story [was] about Leonardo [DiCaprio] – and I said Leonardo DiCrapio.”
He added, “To this day, when I see Leonardo’s name in the prompter, my heartbeat starts to [pound].” Savannah said her most memorable blunder was when she asked Khloé Kardashian about the rumor that she was O.J. Simpson’s child, and not Robert Kardashian’s.
She said, “I was so embarrassed because I felt all this pressure, and I had just started, and I felt like the producers wanted me to ask this dishy question, and I didn’t want to, so I let the time be running out until we were up against a hard break. So at the very end, I was like, ‘And Khloé, what about these rumors?'”
But the TV presenter said Khloé showed “class act” and simply replied, “Nothing to it.”
Just days ago, Craig issued a “dangerous reminder” for viewers during a recent episode of the hit NBC morning show.
The TV personality showed home security footage that captured the moment a dog got a hold of a lithium-ion battery. In the clip, the battery begins to smoke and catch fire as the dog looks at it confused, before running upstairs.
Craig, who often jokes around with his fellow co-hosts, said, “Well, a security camera captured the moment a dog got hold of a lithium-ion battery, sparking a house fire in North Carolina. Take a look here. You can actually see the moment the battery starts to smoke and then suddenly burst into flames.”
The co-host continued to explain to the viewers, “The dog, a five-year-old named Colton, runs up the stairs. His owner says Colton was able to break the safety seal and chew on that battery.”
Craig added, “Thankfully, the owner saw it happen. They rushed home to put the fire out before it spread. They say that the video is a reminder how dangerous those batteries can be if not handled properly.”
