Al Roker took his Today co-stars by surprise on Friday as he joined in with their spontaneous attempt to dance the Macarena. Despite the beloved weather host having only recently re-joined the show after taking some time away to recover from replacement knee surgery, Al very much got involved with the dance.
In fact, Al's attempt was quite possibly the best of the bunch thanks to the fact he was already standing up ready to give a weather forecast and not sitting down like the rest of his co-stars. See Al's dance and his friends Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones' reactions in the video below.
The Today stars broke into this sudden dance segment after their colleague Tom Costello introduced a feature all about a 20-hour flight service which included a short Macarena exercise break for its passengers. Following the hosts' own dance break, Al returned to hosting the weather with a spring in his step – suggesting his recovery has gone very well.
Later on the show, the 68-year-old meteorologist got emotional talking about the time he was hospitalized for blood clots in his legs and lungs which left his wife Deborah Roberts saying that Al had been "a very, very sick man."
"It's not lost on us that this is a major, major thing for Al to be here," she revealed in November 2022, also referring to her husband's returned good health as a "miracle". Al's comments on Friday's show about his health scare came during the hosts' annual father's day segments when the Today dads get together to talk about all things dad related.
Looking back on how his hospitalization had affected him as a father, Al said: "It was the first time that I had this vulnerability about me… you want to be that strength that they need. And when you're in a hospital bed and can barely get up, there's this part of you that doesn't want them to see you like that."
When Carson Daly asked him how he felt now that he'd recovered, the well-like weather host revealed another emotional fact which was affecting him as a father at the moment. "Something I've been dealing with is that I'm going to be 69 this year, and my dad was 69 when he died," he said, before continuing honestly: "So it's a weird feeling. It's like, am I going to beat the over-under."
When Craig asked Al if "almost losing [him]" had helped grow the appreciation his children have for him, Al replied honestly "I don't know." However, when Carson humorously added "I guess we'll find out this father's day," the whole room was brought to much laughter again, Al especially.
Al is heading towards an extra exciting moment as a parent at the moment, as his daughter Courtney, 35, is soon going to be giving birth to her first child, and his first grandchild. On Today's father's day segment, Al revealed the family believe they're around a month away from the special moment. Speaking about becoming a grandparent, he said: "It's the craziest thing. You're carrying them, and then all of a sudden you realize your oldest is carrying a baby [herself]."