The Mirror

NBC’s Chuck Todd: ‘This is the worst thing to happen to me’

Betsy Rothstein Gossip blogger
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TV journos suffer a physical scrutiny few other journalists ever do.

This week NBC Political Director and MSNBC “Daily Rundown” host Chuck Todd was forced to discuss an issue he considers to be “the worst thing to happen” to him. Namely, his degenerating eyesight.

Nah, it’s not that serious. But it does require him to wear glasses that sit perched on the tip of his nose.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program Tuesday, co-host Willie Geist was about to interview Todd about the important happenings of the day. But before that, Geist needed to get something out of the way: Todd’s glasses.

“We need to address Chuck Todd’s glasses,” announced Geist, who has been growing facial hair for November and enduring ongoing on-air inquiries about it. “Chuck, we saw you, are these new? And they’re on the bridge of your nose, you look so wise.”

Todd replied wearily, “I wish. Look, my eyesight is so bad the contacts are not enough. If I could have handled bifocal contact lenses I would have hand them.”

Co-host Mike Barnicle, who routinely gets dumped on for his frumpy clothing choices, pressed on with advice: “Go to the optomitrist not CVS for the glasses,” he cracked.

Todd explained, “I have like ten [pairs] of these everywhere. They’re all over the place. This is the worst thing to happen to me. And the thing is, the more you start, the more you need them.”

The newsman did not return a request for comment by press time on how much viewers have written in to comment on his granny glasses.

UPDATE: Todd replied to The Mirror, explaining that his hairline actually takes more hits than his eyesight. “Ya know, it was mostly positive, hough these were just the reading glasses so a few ‘welcome to middle age’  jokes. I continue to get more grief about my vanishing hairline (I have a six head now, instead of a forehead). When folks run out of cheap shots to take at me on Twitter about politics or ideology or whatever, they resort to the hairline of late.”