It takes a certain amount of courage for daytime talk show hosts to do their job in front of a live audience every day. Live TV can be a scary and dangerous place, and while Jenna Bush Hager has been co-hosting the fourth hour of NBC’s Today Show since 2019, she had a rough outing on the July 24 edition. Hager had an awful slip-up when she said a curse word on Today with Jenna & Friends and then was unable to let it go.
On the episode that aired on the 2025 TV schedule this Thursday, Jenna Bush Hager welcomed fellow NBC anchor Willie Geist as the co-host on her newly rebranded talk show. In the future, she’ll probably think twice about drinking margaritas at the start of her show, because she really messed up when recalling the first time she met Geist’s wife, Christina, and their then-3-year-old son George. Hager said:
Christina goes — I don't know if you can say this — but she was like, 'God, George is acting like an asshole.’
Immediately, producers reacted to tell her she was not allowed to say that, prompting confusion from Jenna Bush Hager that matched Willie Geist’s shock at her comment. The former first daughter stammered:
All of them are like, ‘You’re not allowed to say that.’ Can you say it one time? No? Sorry. … Everybody’s looking at me like, ‘Why did you say that?’
Willie Geist responded light-heartedly:
No, you can say it zero times. I'm looking at you like, 'Why did you say that?' I'd like to go on the record that my wife never said such a thing about my precious 3-year-old son.
Jenna Bush Hager stuck to her guns, arguing that not only did Willie Geist’s wife refer to her child like that, but that Hager was certain you were allowed one curse word on television. She said she was blushing, as she continued:
I thought you were allowed to say it one time. That’s just Schitt’s Creek?
Without the spelling of the Dan Levy comedy — a perfect option for your next long binge — to accompany her comment, however, Jenna Bush Hager had effectively uttered yet another swear word, and a number of people could be heard shouting, “No!” I think I speak for everyone when I say:
Again, Willie Geist stepped in to shut it down, explaining:
That’s the title of a show spelled differently. And don’t keep going down the line of expletives. This stops here. And we are live on NBC this morning.
What an absolute nightmare scenario for The Today Show host, and if you haven’t met your daily quota of cringe, you can see it all play out below:
Wow, it's not bleeped or anything!
So when you have such a monumental gaffes as 1) cursing on live TV, 2) calling your colleague's toddler an asshole, and 3) cursing a second time in trying to figure out what is and is not OK to say, one would hope Jenna Bush Hager would be able to pick herself up by her boot straps. This isn’t Bush Hager’s first awkward live TV moment, after all, so she was able to get on with the show, right?
Wrong. The host remained flustered by her mistake, saying:
I feel worried like I'm going to get a call from the boss or something.
On a segment after, Willie Geist reminded her to "watch your language," and even NBC correspondent Peter Alexander, who was filling in for Craig Melvin on TODAY’s early hours, got in on the fun by giving Jenna Bush Hager a hard time.
She admitted that she was spiraling, saying:
I'm still stuck in a moment and I'm trying to get out of it. I'm still stuck in a moment, and here's Peter Alexander from the White House coming over to shame me. I was told you could say it one time!
Willie Geist rejected the notion that anyone told her she could use one curse word, but told Peter Alexander he was making it worse. The situation didn’t die there, either, as she called the shame “all-encompassing” and referenced “ruining my job, ruining my career.” She asked her co-host:
I want to be in a shame ball and go eat some Smashburger tacos ... why did I do it? Why did I do it? Where did it come from?
I’ve got a feeling she may be asking herself those questions for a long time. However, I'm also sure that all will be perfectly fine in the long run.
We’ll have to see how quickly Jenna Bush Hager bounces back from this snafu. Check her out each morning on NBC in The Today Show’s fourth hour.
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