Talk-show host denies feud with co-host, again
"We are great friends," he said, for the fourth time this month, in a statement his co-host did not sign and was not shown. The show's ratings are up 30 percent.
The host of the city's second-most-watched morning show issued a statement on Thursday denying, for the fourth time this month, that he is feuding with his co-host. The statement said the two are "great friends," "a team" and "excited about the fall." It was issued on his letterhead, not the show's, and his co-host, when reached by the Bugle, said she had not seen it.
"Oh, he put out another one?" she said. "That's nice. Tell him I said that's nice."
The month
The feud, which does not exist, began on Oct. 1, when the co-host arrived at the studio to find her chair moved six inches to the left. It continued on Oct. 6, when the host introduced a segment she had produced as "something the team put together." It escalated on Oct. 11, when the two disagreed on air about whether a figure in red and blue seen outside the studio window was "a menace" (his word) or "kind of a hero, honestly" (hers), and the host cut to a commercial mid-sentence.
“Oh, he put out another one? That's nice. Tell him I said that's nice.”
The co-host, reached by phone
The exchange was clipped, shared, and watched 11 million times. The show's ratings rose 30 percent the following week. The network's publicist said the two "have never been closer," and then asked whether the Bugle would be running the clip again.
The chair
The chair has since been moved back, then moved again, then replaced with a different chair that a crew member said is "the same chair but newer." The co-host said she did not notice. The host said he had nothing to do with it. The crew member said "somebody did."
The window
The figure in red and blue has not returned to the studio window. The show's producers have, according to a source, "left it open, just in case." The host, in his statement, said he would "welcome any guest," and did not specify.
The network has renewed the show for another season. The two will appear together at a charity gala next week, where the seating chart, the Bugle has learned, has been revised three times.