Author: Jennifer Konerman

August 20, 2016 7:49pm PT by Jennifer Konerman

Matt Lauer, Ryan Lochte  NBC Universal

“I over-exaggerated that story, and if I had never done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Ryan Lochte found himself apologizing once again for his “immature behavior” in Rio. 

Lochte told NBC Nightly News in an interview Saturday that “it was my immature behavior” that got him and his fellow Team USA swimmers into trouble, and admitted he “over-exaggerated” the story about the supposed gas station robbery. 

The Olympics swimmer sat down with NBC’s Matt Lauer for his first interview since he was indicted for misleading local authorities. Two days before, it was revealed that Lochte lied to officials about an alleged robbery that took place Sunday in Rio. 

Portions of the interview aired on Saturday’s NBC Nightly News and more will air on Monday’s installment of Today. 

In the interview, Lauer asked Lochte how he felt about being called “vandals” by the Brazilian authorities and if he felt any guilt toward his teammates. Lochte told Lauer that he’s been laying low since he got home because he wanted to make sure his teammates were home “on U.S. soil.” 

Lauer asked him why he didn’t tell the “real story earlier” and helping his teammates who were detained in Rio, to which Lochte responded, “This is why I’m taking full responsibility for my actions. Because if I didn’t over-exaggerate the story to what i said when I did when it first happened with Billy Bush and yourself and I told you the full story, none of this would have happened.” 

When Lochte admitted that he exaggerated the part of the story with the gun, Lauer asked him why. “I don’t know why,” Lochte simply said, “I shouldn’t have said anything.” 

In response to the Brazilian officials calling Lochte and his teammates “vandals,” Lochte said, “whether you call it a robbery, whether you call it extortion, or us paying just for the damages – we don’t know,” Lochte responded, “all we know is there was a gun pointed in our direction and we were demanded to give money.” 

“We just wanted to get out of there,” he added. “There was a gun pointed in our direction, we were all frightened and we wanted to get out of there as quick as possible.”

“I over-exaggerated that story, and if I had never done that, we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Lochte told Lauer, taking responsibility for his teammates and admitting that he “definitely had too much to drink that night.” 

Lochte summed up: “It was my immature behavior.” 

Lochte left Rio before his teammates, and a few of them were taken off their plane and detained. When Lauer asked him about how it felt to watch that unfold already home in the U.S., Lochte said he was “hurt.” 

“I let my team down,” said Lochte. “I don’t want them to think that I left and left them high and dry. They’re my teammates. I wanted to be there and I wanted to help out in any way I could, and so I wanted to make sure they were home safe before I talked. I’m embarrassed.” 

“I was immature and I made a stupid mistake,” he told Lauer. “I definitely learned from this and I’m really sorry.” 

He also apologized to his fellow Olympians for taking attention off of them during their achievements in Rio as people watched his “immature antics” instead of their medal wins, saying that “I took away from their accomplishments about this story, about me being immature for one night. I took away from that and that’s what I think hurts me the most.” 

Lochte also spoke with Today’s Billy Bush early Sunday, hours after he and three other swimmers claimed they were robbed at gunpoint. Lochte also spoke to Lauer on the phone later in the week. 

Despite the swimmers’ claims, officials had trouble confirming the swimmers’ accounts. It was later revealed that the four were not robbed, but instead vandalized a gas station bathroom and got into a confrontation with a security guard, which ended with them paying an undisclosed sum for the damage. Video has also since surfaced of the gas station incident.

The fourth swimmer involved with the incident made a deal with a Brazilian judge to make a $10,800 payment and was allowed to leave the country later Friday, according to his lawyer. Lochte, who had already left Brazil by the time he was indicted, has since hired public relations expert Matthew Hiltzik. The swimmer also apologized for his “behavior” and for “not being more careful and candid” in how he characterized what happened in a lengthy statement posted on his Instagram account on Friday.

See clips of the interview below. 

2016 Summer Olympics: Rio

Jennifer Konerman

THRnews@thr.com

August 18, 2016 8:58pm PT by Jennifer Konerman

Jon Stewart, Larry Wilmore  Screengrab

The two former ‘Daily Show’ colleagues said goodbye on Thursday.

The Daily Show’s past and The Nightly Show’s present converged one last time. 

Jon Stewart stopped by Larry Wilmore’s final episode of The Nightly Show on Thursday, initially there to take Wilmore’s gifted champagne, but stayed to chat. “What are we doing this week?” he asked, before Wilmore could pass on the bad news that it was his final show. 

“Your last show? Oh my God, what did you piss off Peter Thiel?” Stewart, an exec producer on the show, joked, giving a nod to the recent Gawker lawsuit, later giving Wilmore the advice: “Do not confuse cancelation with failure.” 

“What you, my friend, were tasked to do, you have done and done beautifully,” he added. “You gave voice to underserved voices in the media arena.” 

“You started a conversation that was not on television when you began, and you worked with a group of people who you invited to that conversation to collaborate with you, to sharpen that conversation,” Stewart said, “and what you don’t realize is that when you walk out of here, that conversation doesn’t end,” he added. 

Stewart ended with one final note: “You did it, my … mishpucha” (choosing Yiddish instead of the word Wilmore was visibly worried he might use). 

Wilmore worked with Stewart as the “Senior Black Correspondent” when the latter was host of The Daily Show, popping in to share his colorful thoughts on the latest news stories relating to black issues in America. 

During his final show on Thursday, Wilmore also addressed the “one thing we can all agree on: Ellen DeGeneres is a pure delight.” He discussed the latest debate whether her recent tweet about Usain Bolt. He turned to his contributors for their takes, but most of them were already on vacation or looking for their next jobs. 

“I’m Larry Wilmore, your host for the next 29 minutes,” the host began his show. “It’s never easy when your television show gets canceled, but for me, there has been a silver lining, you guys. All the free booze!” 

Wilmore has been getting gifts all week from his fellow late-night hosts, including today’s pastries from The Daily Show, and wine and liquor earlier this week. 

The host received some “basic-cable wine” from Full Frontal‘s Samantha Bee, which led Wilmore to tell the audience Wednesday that “I was going to do the show sober, but then Colbert sent this,” showing a photo that he posted earlier on Instagram of himself surrounded by mini bottles of alcohol, a gift from The Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert, which he brought out for his show guests. “You gotta step it up Last Week Tonight — daddy needs more juice,” he called out John Oliver’s HBO series. (Oliver later sent him champagne with a note that encouraged Wilmore to get “premium cable wasted”). 

Former Daily Show colleague Lewis Black appeared with Wilmore on Wednesday’s episode to talk about Donald Trump and his thoughts on the Republican party. 

“As soon as he said, ‘Mexicans … borders … pillaging … they’re eating all the avocados and there’s no shrimp dip!’ — as soon as he said that, any party with any moral compass whatsoever would say, ‘You can run; you just can’t run as a Republican,'” said Black. “That was the moment in time people began to watch, thinking, ‘Oh, this’ll be great. This’ll be f—ing fun to watch.'”

Comedy Central announced the cancelation of The Nightly Show on Monday. “Unfortunately, it hasn’t connected with our audience in ways that we need it to,” network president Kent Alterman told The Hollywood Reporter. The series, which has aired for two seasons, averaged a night-of rating of 0.2 in the 18-49 demo.

On Monday, the host addressed the show’s cancelation in the opening of the show, joking that “on the plus side, our show going off the air has to mean one thing: Racism is solved. We did it.”

“I’m really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart and our fans to have had this opportunity,” Wilmore told THR. “But I’m also saddened and surprised we won’t be covering this crazy election or “The Unblackening” as we’ve coined it. And keeping it 100 [a reference to his mantra], I guess I hadn’t counted on “The Unblackening” happening to my time slot as well.”

Wilmore is also an executive producer on ABC’s Black-ish, and began at the Viacom-owned network in 2006 as the “Senior Black Correspondent” on The Daily Show. Chris Hardwick’s @Midnight will slide into the 11:30 p.m. slot as a temporary replacement on Comedy Central. 

Jon Stewart Larry Wilmore

Jennifer Konerman

THRnews@thr.com

April 01, 2016 9:32pm PT by Jennifer Konerman

Chris Christie on ‘The Tonight Show’  

The governor did part of his ‘Tonight Show’ interview in front of a cardboard cutout of himself.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie just cannot live this meme down.

Christie joined Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon for his 1,000th show on Friday night, only to relive the awkward Donald Trump press conference after which Christie was mocked online as being Trump’s hostage.

During Trump’s Super Tuesday victory speech/press conference, Christie became a trending topic and meme as Twitter users wondered if Trump was holding him against his will. Christie’s facial expressions made some people ask if he was in a “proof of life video,” and others edited him into scenes from Gone Girl.

Fallon, wearing a New Jersey pin in solidarity with his guest, asked him about that viral moment. “You look like you were having a blast,” he said, pointing to a photo of Christie behind Trump. “Were you being held hostage at this time?”

Christie had an explanation that Fallon could understand. “This is what you would look like if you were standing behind Jay Leno while he was doing his monologue,” he said. “If you’re used to talking, it’s awkward not to talk.”

Trying to prove how odd it looked, Fallon brought out a cardboard cutout of Christie to stand behind the governor during the interview. “You don’t find that distracting?”

The Tonight Show host, to prove his point, even brought out a cardboard cutout of himself to stand behind his desk, as well.

Speaking of the current election cycle, Fallon lamented that he and Christie hadn’t seen each other since the governor suspended his campaign. “That’s politic-ese for saying I lost,” said Christie. “I don’t sense a lot of pent-up demand out there for that.”

Though Christie’s a good sport about Fallon’s “dozens and dozens” of jabs about him on The Tonight Show, he joked, “If I leave public life, you’ll have to hire four additional writers.”

When Christie was asked if he would consider being Trump’s vice president, he balked: “I have a hard time believing anyone would ask me to be vice president.”

But he does have a few plans for his future.

“When the governor thing is over,” he said, “I’d maybe like to play tambourine in The Roots.”

The Tonight Show

Jennifer Konerman

THRnews@thr.com