STUDIO HORROR

Racist Attacker Lunges at ‘Today Show’ Host After Storming Studio

The man, who was looking for beloved weatherman Al Roker, managed to get past security before lunging at Craig Melvin.

A man has been arrested after he managed to slip past Today show security before lunging at host Craig Melvin.

The unnamed man was apparently looking for weatherman Al Roker, but when he couldn’t find him, he turned to Melvin, yelling the N-word at him around 9 a.m.

The intruder was quickly apprehended by security and later arrested.

No one was hurt in the incident, and both Melvin, 47, and Roker, 71, went on air as planned 15 minutes later.

The incident has raised serious questions about security at the morning show.

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The NYPD said in a statement that at approximately 9:19 a.m. “it was reported to officers that there was a disorderly person inside 30 Rockefeller Center, within the confines of the Midtown North Precinct. Officers responded and placed an unidentified individual into custody. There were no injuries reported. The investigation remains ongoing.”

The incident happened on the same day that Savannah Guthrie announced that she would be temporarily stepping away from the Today show for the next “few” weeks to film episodes for a new Wordle game show.

Her new hosting gig comes more than five months after the disappearance of her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, from her home in Tucson, Arizona on February 1. Guthrie took two months away from the Today show anchor desk amid the search for her mother before returning in April.

Melvin has been an anchor on the Today show since 2018. In January 2025, he was promoted to co-anchor alongside Guthrie after Hoda Kotb’s departure.

He met his wife, former sports reporter Lindsay Czarniak, at WRC-TV where they both worked in Washington, D.C. They have two kids together.

Roker has been a TV weatherman for more than 50 years. Aside from his work on Today he has joined Late Night with David Letterman, hosted the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Roker has been divorced twice. He had a daughter, Courtney, with his second wife, Alice Bell, in 1987, and two children, Leila and Nick, with his third and current wife, ABC News correspondent Deborah Roberts.

In a statement to the Daily Beast, NBC News Today wrote, “There was a security incident this morning at the TODAY show studio. An individual entered an unauthorized area in a vestibule near Studio 1A. The person approached anchor Craig Melvin, who alerted security. The individual was detained and taken into custody by law enforcement without further incident. There was no altercation, and no one was injured.”

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Lauren HartleyBreaking News Intern

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