Jenna Bush Hager and Willie Geist had quite the morning on Today With Jenna & Friends as they celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a pint of Guinness.
The Today anchors challenged each other to split the G on the show after watching a clip of Niall Horan teaching Ed Sheeran the tradition, in which your first sip of the Irish stout is supposed to land the foam halfway through the glass’ Guinness logo. But the challenge took a messy turn when Bush Hager spilled Guinness all over herself during the broadcast.
Bush Hager offered to try it first as she said, “There’s no way I’m gonna be able to do this.” But Geist believed in her, calling her a “veteran.”
“I’m gonna try and make my mom proud,” she said as she tried to split the G. “Laura, this is for you.” Unfortunately, Bush Hager couldn’t take the challenge and spilled beer all over her chin and dress.
“Oh no!” Geist reacted. “Does anyone have a mop or a tarp we can put down? Let’s help you out here. Oh, Jenna.”
Someone from production rushed over with a towel for Bush Hager to clean herself up as she said, “Wait, what just happened? My body couldn’t take it.”
Geist blamed the foam as she continued, “My body couldn’t take it. My body just rejected that.”
The Sunday TODAY anchor was next to try the challenge. But Bush Hager made sure to warn him, “That is not easy, and I thought I had all of the beer moves saved up.”
Geist was also unable to split the G on Today. But he admittedly got closer to it than Bush Hager did!
“I just can’t believe someone can do that. This is shocking to me,” Bush Hager reacted, while Geist fired back, “This is shocking to me, what i just witnessed.”
The hilarious moment was almost a callback to the days of Today With Kathie Lee & Hoda when Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford chatted about entertainment and lifestyle on the fourth hour of Today over glasses of wine. Gifford, who Bush Hager later replaced in 2020, found out just how much wine they consumed on the show on her last day.
Kotb and Gifford enjoyed a whopping 5,300 glasses of wine over the years together. Can Bush Hager top that?
Today with Jenna & Friends airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.