


The internet works fast. Jenna Bush Hager and her Today guest host Ego Nwodim shared a laugh on this morning’s broadcast over Beyoncé’s viral reaction to winning the Grammy for Best Country Album Sunday (Feb. 2) evening, becoming the first Black woman to win a Grammy for a country music song since the Pointer Sisters in 1975.
The “Cowboy Carter” singer appeared visibly shocked to hear her name called, to the point where her daughter, Blue Ivy Carter, urged her to get up and accept the award. Bush Hager said “social media really went to town” with the viral moment, turning Beyoncé’s shocked reaction into a meme.
“Isn’t it kind of hilarious how just three seconds of facial expressions can lead to a million memes?” she asked Nwodim.
She continued, “And I was happy because my dad also made some facial expressions at the inauguration. He didn’t do anything and she didn’t do anything, they just looked surprised or delighted.”
Bush Hager than shared a side-by-side comparison of her father, former President George W. Bush, at President Trump’s inauguration, and Beyoncé during the Grammy Awards. Nwodim added that they looked “bewildered.”
“Bewildered for different reasons,” Bush Hager said in agreement with a laugh.
The former First Daughter has said before that her father often “goes viral for basically anything” when he makes public appearances. Her father recently attended President Trump’s inauguration, where she said he “was very well behaved.”
“You know when you’re watching your kid’s holiday concert, you don’t really, if you’re honest, you don’t really care about the whole scene, you’re just zooming in on your kid?” she told her recent guest host, Scarlett Johansson. “That’s a little bit about how we watch an inauguration in my family. I’m like, ‘What’s happening with my parents?’”
The Today host admitted she sometimes feels like a “stage mom” when it comes to her father.
“Not for my mom, because she’s so lovely and I know she’ll be fine. But my dad, eight years ago there was a poncho — he couldn’t figure out a poncho and it became a thing,” she recounted to Johansson, referring to a viral moment from President Trump’s previous inauguration where Bush struggled with his rain poncho.
Today with Jenna & Friends airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.