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Howard Stern made a surprise appearance on Today to celebrate Al Roker’s 30th anniversary as the morning show’s weather anchor, but he wasn’t there just to congratulate him.
On Tuesday, Jan. 27, the NBC morning show held a special tribute to Roker, 71, who joined the show in 1996, and Stern, 72, called in from his radio show to speak with his longtime friend.
During the conversation, Stern asked Roker, 71, if he was worried the question was “too controversial,” but said it was “something everyone wants to know.”
“I know you don’t like controversy, but are there any weather experts out there?” Stern asked. “Are there any women who would be willing to sleep with me right away?”
He said he was asking “seriously” and pushed the topic further. “Answer the question: Has there ever been a woman who has thrown herself at you? You have to say, ‘Look, I’m a professional, no.’ Was there anything vulgar about it? ”
Roker, who has been married to Deborah Roberts since 1995, laughed and answered “no” to that question.
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However, he joked that co-anchor Craig Melvin “threw himself at me,” to which Melvin laughed and said, “Oh, stop. Don’t bring me into this.”
“Is that going to be a new heated rivalry?” Stern joked.
That wasn’t the only tough question Mr. Stern asked Mr. Roker on the air.
“After 30 years, are you ready to come clean and tell people crazy things? You don’t even have to be there anymore. You made a lot of money,” Stern said, wondering if Roker would “ever reveal” things like “which customer had the worst breath.”
“Yeah, until it finally goes off the air, but not until then,” Roker said. “Because I need this job. My daughter is getting married this spring.”
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Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty
Ahead of his 30th anniversary, Roker told PEOPLE that he’s “not thinking about retirement” and is “just going to keep going.”
“I love what I do,” he said. “I feel great. I love this job. I love doing this job.”
“I think the beauty of this broadcast is that the mission hasn’t changed in the last 74 years,” he said. “The way we bring it to you is that we are, in fact, each of us temporary custodians of this legacy…At some point I won’t be on the show and someone else will be. But it’s pretty special to be part of a pretty cool club. It’s actually not accurate to say this was a dream job, because I had no idea I’d be on the Today Show.”
