Another hot-mic second has Billy Bush below scrutiny, nevertheless it appears the leaked audio received’t price the TV host a job this time.
On Friday, January 6, The Daily Beast revealed audio of Bush making a sexualized joke about Kendall Jenner on the set of Extra on October 31, 2022. As he checked out a photograph of Jenner dressed up as Jessie from Toy Story 2, Bush made a wisecrack referencing the Toy Story character Woody. “Kendall goes as Jessie and, believe me, there were a lot of woodies,” Bush stated within the audio, with manufacturing staffers laughing in response.
In the phase that made it to air, nonetheless, Bush gave a toned-down touch upon Jenner’s Jessie get-up, saying that it might “be hard to see Toy Story ever the same way.”
But the Extra group is supporting Bush, who has hosted the syndicated newsmagazine since 2019. “As with many forms of production in the entertainment industry, the show’s creative process allows the flexibility to try different jokes and banter,” a consultant for Telepictures, Extra’s manufacturing firm, stated in an announcement to The Daily Beast. “In the end, some material lands on the cutting room floor, including remarks that may be too edgy to air on broadcast television.”
In 2016, Bush was fired from Today after The Washington Post revealed audio of a 2005 dialog between Bush and Donald Trump through which Bush, then with Access Hollywood, laughed as Trump bragged about grabbing ladies by their genitals.
“Looking back upon what was said on that bus, I wish I had changed the topic. [Trump] liked TV and competition. I could’ve said, ‘Can you believe the ratings on whatever?’ But I didn’t have the strength of character to do it,” Bush later advised The Hollywood Reporter. “I was shocked and alarmed [by the leaked video] and totally and completely gutted. It was awful. And my participation was awful, too.”