{"id":359041,"date":"2026-09-28T18:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/359041\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:32:09","slug":"al-roker-departs-today-show-set-to-report-for-jury-duty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/359041\/","title":{"rendered":"Al Roker departs &#8216;Today&#8217; show set to report for jury duty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Al Roker surprised some viewers by leaving during Monday\u2019s broadcast of NBC\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Today<\/a>\u201d to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/Dd1NK1Rp7eI\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> report for jury duty<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/al-roker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">veteran weatherman<\/a> started the week on camera with his colleagues, but was <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/al-roker-shares-surprising-reason-he-left-the-today-show-mid-broadcast-12145179\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">replaced by Dylan Dreyer<\/a> after delivering a few morning reports, according to People.<\/p>\n<p>Host Savannah Guthrie told viewers Roker \u201chad to leave a little bit early,\u201d but offered no further explanation.<\/p>\n<p>They mystery deepened when co-host Craig Melvin acknowledged Roker\u2019s absence with little elaboration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAl had to step out for just a little bit. He\u2019ll be back tomorrow,\u201d Melvin forecasted.<\/p>\n<p>Roker finally cleared things up on Instagram, where he appears wearing a suit and standing in front of a courthouse.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, got out of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tkk6LrDlU0o\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the \u2018Today\u2019 show<\/a> early because I\u2019ve got jury duty,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s everybody\u2019s civic duty to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/2013\/01\/07\/al-roker-i-pooped-my-pants-during-2002-white-house-visit-ditched-soiled-underwear-in-bathroom-and-went-commando\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">do the duty<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Appearing to be working without cue cards, Roker notes that his explanation was a bit redundant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said duty twice,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n<p>A sample of the Shorty Long song \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reels\/Dd1NK1Rp7eI\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Here Comes the Judge<\/a>\u201d plays while Roker talks about fulfilling his civic responsibility.<\/p>\n<p>Roker, who celebrated his 30th anniversary on \u201cToday\u201d in January, found himself in a scary situation that will have legal implications in July when a 41-year-old man allegedly<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/2026\/07\/23\/today-show-stricter-security-after-intruder\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> slipped past security, <\/a>took a swing at Melvin and made racist comments. Authorities said Roker, 72, was the suspect\u2019s initial target.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Al Roker surprised some viewers by leaving during Monday\u2019s broadcast of NBC\u2019s \u201cToday\u201d to report for jury duty.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[29720,132224,75,84,83,9473,9,24,63,15834,133625],"class_list":["post-359041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-al-roker","tag-jury-duty","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-nbc","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-today","tag-weatherman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}