Billy Bush is leaving the “Today” show, an NBC source told The Daily News Tuesday.
Billy Bush is reportedly negotiating an exit from NBC’s “Today” show, The Hollywood Reporter previously learned, but it is only a matter of time before an official announcement is made.
The likely exit is part of the fallout from a leaked “Access Hollywood” tape from 2005 of Bush and Republican Donald Trump engaged in a lewd conversation about women.
When the tape first surfaced over the weekend, one celebrity publicist told THR, “People who were already booked on the Today show were saying, ‘Maybe we should look at GMA or make sure it’s not him doing the interview.’ There are people who wouldn’t talk to him before the news. At Access, he was always ‘that guy.’ There were people who were anxious about him before he started [on Today].”
PageSix reported Monday night that Bush boasted about the Trump tape when he was covering the Summer Olympics in Rio for NBC, sources told THR that network management did not know about the tape’s existence until early last week.
Bush was originally hired to join the weekday morning version for the third hour of the show, but Willie Geist, who currently hosts the Sunday edition of Today, replaced Bush’s place on the program.
“Obviously I’m embarrassed and ashamed. It’s no excuse, but this happened 11 years ago — I was younger, less mature and acted foolishly in playing along. I’m very sorry,” Bush said in a statement.