‘The Today Show,’ Matt Lauer, One Direction, and the missing Zayn Malik

NBC’s “Today Show” is occasionally a place for hard-hitting questions, but when they come from Matt Lauer, they do typically come more towards political leaders or people in the headlines for controversial reasons … not a boy band who is coming on the show to promote an album / boost the show’s ratings.

Here is the situation regarding One Direction Monday. The group was scheduled to perform Monday at a Universal Studios show in Orlando, but band member Zayn Mailk was noticeably absent while Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, and Harry Styles all managed to show up. When Lauer asked where Malik was, Liam responded that he was suffering from some sort of stomach problem. Then, almost out of nowhere, Lauer asks about if there were problems related to substance abuse that was keeping Malik away.

We suppose where this question is coming from is a video released earlier this year that showed Tomlinson and Malik with pot, and typically, many addicts do end up canceling things last-minute with a variety of excuses.

However, there is not a whole lot of evidence out there that this is what happened to Malik here, and just because he has taken drugs in the past does not mean he’s addicted to them. The band quickly denied that he was suffering from any problems other than stomach sickness, and then went about the rest of the show.

In the end, though, we still understand why Lauer or NBC would be annoyed if they devoted so much time, money, and resources to get One Direction, only to have four members of the band show up. However, what can you do? The last thing we’d want to watch is Zayn throw up on live TV or pass out on the stage if he’s that ill.

What do you think about how all this was handled? Share with a comment.