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Billy Bush suspended by Today- Updated

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“How are any of the women going to be expected to work with him?” asks a source close to the show.

There is a growing sense of outrage at NBC’s Today show — especially among the show’s many female staffers — about comments Billy Bush made on a hot mic with Donald Trump during a taping for a 2005 Access Hollywood segment. And many of them are wondering what management is going to do about it.

“It’s disgusting,” said one female staffer. “He was already unpopular,” said another, noting that Bush and his 9 a.m. co-anchor, Tamron Hall, have an icy relationship. Bush also has clashed on air with Al Roker over Bush’s handling of an interview with Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte during which Bush failed to challenge Lochte’s yarn about being held up at gunpoint in Rio.

NBC delayed releasing the tapes for nearly four days, according to the Washington Post, out of fear of a Trump lawsuit. A source confirms to THR that Access Hollywood and the news division held the audio until lawyer approval, standard for sensitive stories. 

Trump and Bush were recorded using extremely vulgar and predatory language in a conversation about Nancy O’Dell, who was Bush’s Access Hollywood co-host at the time. While Trump's comments are far worse, Bush very clearly eggs him on. Trump issued a video apologylate Friday, after facing a rash of criticism. The Republican nominee for president was on Access Hollywood to promote a cameo appearance on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. The conversation was recorded on an Access Hollywood bus that was taking Trump, Bush and a camera crew to the Days set. Actress Arianne Zucker was waiting to escort Trump and when Bush spots her from inside the bus, he can be heard saying: "Sheesh, your girl’s hot as shit, in the purple. Yes, the Donald has scored!" When they emerge from the bus, Bush encourages Zucker to hug Trump, and also asks for a hug himself.

 

Multiple sources at NBC News say there is growing concern that the scandal, if not handled quickly, could taint the entire Today show brand — one that counts women as its core viewer constituency. The incident comes at a time when the flagship 7-9 a.m. broadcast, co-hosted by Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie, has in the last year inched past rival Good Morning America in the critical 25-54 demographic.“How are any of the women [at Today] going to be expected to work with him?” asked a source close to the show.

 

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Billy Bush has been suspended from the "Today" show "pending further review of the matter," NBC News said Sunday night.

It is unclear if he will ever return to the broadcast.

"He will never be on the show again," an on-air source said, reflecting what staffers are saying behind the scenes.

The sudden change came amid a chorus of calls for disciplinary action against Bush over his vulgar 2005 conversation with Donald Trump that was caught on tape and revealed on Friday.

NBC sources initially said Bush was not being disciplined and that he would be in his usual spot as co-host of the "Today" show's 9 a.m. hour on Monday morning.

As late as Sunday morning, one of the sources was saying that Bush would use Monday's broadcast to reiterate the apology he made Friday.

But on Sunday afternoon, senior NBC executives made the decision to bench Bush on Monday, effectively reprimanding him.

A couple of hours later, the executive in charge of "Today," Noah Oppenheim, said in an internal memo that the executives had decided to go even further and suspend Bush.

"I know we've all been deeply troubled by the revelations of the past 48 hours," Oppenheim wrote.

"Let me be clear -- there is simply no excuse for Billy's language and behavior on that tape," he wrote. "NBC has decided to suspend Billy, pending further review of this matter."

Before the memo was released, the on-air source said staffers were in the dark, stuck refreshing Twitter to find out what was going on with Bush.

 

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It took them this long to become aware of the recording though? The recording sounded like it was officially recorded for the show, so how did no one know about it before? Seems like NBC just wanted to promote a political agenda. Not that I care because I don't like Trump but this whole thing just seems super shady of NBC. They obviously were holding onto this recording like an unreleased tape since the beginning.

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8 hours ago, QTpop13 said:

It took them this long to become aware of the recording though? The recording sounded like it was officially recorded for the show, so how did no one know about it before? Seems like NBC just wanted to promote a political agenda. Not that I care because I don't like Trump but this whole thing just seems super shady of NBC. They obviously were holding onto this recording like an unreleased tape since the beginning.

It took them long because it's from 2005, I suppose the only reason they found it is because they're going through the archives to find every old Trump footage they have rip4

They've pulled some questionable shit, like inviting him to SNL only three months after they were supposedly outraged and fired him from The Apprentice and then on Fallon, but I don't think they intentionally hid this. 

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Fucking good  he's just as much to blame as Trump for enabling him, laughing at it, and egging him on

Billy Bush has been suspended from the "Today" show "pending further review of the matter," NBC News said Sunday night. It is unclear if he will ever return to the broadcast. "He will never


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