Al Roker Explains How They Kept Meredith Vieira's Farewell Flash Mob Secret (VIDEO)

Meredith Vieira has seen her share of pranks and surprises on 'Today,' not the least of which was Wednesday's farewell flash mob for her last day on the show. It included a crowd of people singing Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing,' with assists from Abe Vigoda and Jimmy Fallon. Wednesday on 'Access Hollywood Live' (weekdays, syndicated on NBC), Al Roker talked about how they were able to surprise Vieira with such a big production.

"The great thing is, Meredith usually comes in drunk," Roker deadpanned, "so it's not really that hard to get much by on her." Kidding aside, Roker said Vieira didn't get a copy of the rundown for that morning's show, so she knew something was going on but it would have been hard to guess exactly what.


Vieira had been on the show for five years, which made Billy Bush and Kit Hoover wonder what would happen if Roker, who become the weekday weatherman in 1996 after filling in for Willard Scott, ever left. Puzzlingly, Roker just said "space shuttle." We're not sure how he would apply that to his leaving, but since the space shuttles are heading out on their final missions now, he'd better retire quickly.