‘The Today Show,’ Billy Bush negotiating departure

Ever since yesterday, it’s been largely assumed that “The Today Show” and Billy Bush would have a parting of the ways, and the only real question was when it could happen.

Now, we’re getting a little bit closer to that time. Per The Hollywood Reporter, Bush and the show are currently in negotiations over his exit from the morning show, which is coming after the infamous 2005 “Trump tape” showed him and Donald Trump engaging in a lewd discussion about women. Bush apologized later for his role in the controversy, but the source notes that publicists since have been trying to steer their female clients potentially around interviews with the host, who was with “Access Hollywood” at the time of the incident.

A formal announcement could come within the next week, and the question that you have to wonder now is what could be next for Bush. It’s rather difficult to envision a scenario in which another big-name entertainment news show wants to take him on given the current climate surrounding the election, and wherever he goes, there will be controversy about if hiring him was the right or wrong move.

For “Today,” we have to assume that their priority is now going to be moving on as fast as humanly possible, finding a new host for the 9:00 a.m. hour, and then establishing business as usual once more. It’s fairly hard to imagining anyone out there holding the actions of Bush against them, especially if they let him go — after all, there is no indication that anyone at NBC was aware of these tapes’ existence at the time of Bush being hired or afterwards.