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Today host Karl Stefanovic's cheeky response to 'drunk' news anchor
Today show host Karl Stefanovic poked fun at himself during a segment about a viral video of an American news anchor slurring as she delivered a morning broadcast.
The anchor, Heather Kovar, worked for New York TV station WRGB CBS-6 when she began showing up looking a little worse for wear and mixing up colleagues' names while live on air.
"Now to a story going viral. This is not something you'd see in Australia ever: the TV anchor shocking viewers as she slurred her words and appeared disheveled on air," Karl said.
After footage of Heather played, Karl jokingly added, "That's not a knife..."
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The phrase, from the 1986 film Crocodile Dundee, references being able to outdo someone, with Karl referencing his infamous appearance on the Today Show in 2009 the morning after the Logie Awards where he was clearly still drunk.
Heather was suspended following an incoherent broadcast, with producers claiming she was often "intoxicated" while working. When the video of her slurring her words and mixing up her colleagues names went viral, Heather quit.
She shared a statement with the Times Union newspaper, revealing the alarming broadcast was as a result of sleep deprivation.
"Saturday I was scheduled to work the early morning 6am shift and the evening shift," she said. "I was sleep-deprived and exhausted."
The New York Post reports Heather's Saturday evening broadcast saw her abruptly and bizarrely changing topics without providing any background information to the viewers.
"And so, moving on tonight, is we have to tell you also, you know, like other news that’s happening in the area, and across the area, in the nation," she said.
Heather shared her work schedule on Twitter with her shifts not providing the minimum turnaround time of 10 hours between Saturday and Sunday.
However, a producer has also shared with NBCUniversal that Heather would often come in for weekend shifts "intoxicated", but "not this bad".
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