Yahoo Lifestyle Willie Geist's 'Pipe Dream' Came True and 'Exceeded' His Expectations (Exclusive)
Willie Geist broke away from his usual format for his upcoming Sunday Sitdown. After nearly nine years of hosting Sunday TODAY, the anchor took his popular segment to viewers, conducting a Sunday Sitdown interview in front of a live audience for the very first time.
"It was sort of a pipe dream a couple years ago," he tells Parade. And it finally came to fruition at a taping on Jan. 22 at New York's City Winery.
"It was something we've been talking about for a couple years," Geist reveals. "I have these conversations in kind of intimate rooms and restaurants and bars and music studios and people's homes. Wouldn't it be fun, because people have such a relationship with our show now, after almost nine years, to bring it to the viewers?"
The taping—which airs Feb. 2—"exceeded" their "expectations, like tenfold." The TV personality says, "It was kind of what I was hoping it would be, and it was even better than I thought it would be."
Geist's live interview with comedian Nate Bargatze drew attendees from all over the country, who came to town specifically for the first-of-its-kind TODAY event.
"[It] just blows me away that people are that committed to the show," the journalist admits. "It just felt great to see everyone. You know, [I] sit in a studio and do a show for a lot of people, but you don't quite feel that face-to-face connection. It was just awesome to be with all of our viewers and they were so enthusiastic."
Given how well the event went, Geist would "love to take this act on the road" to other cities where his viewers are. Having his own talk show one day "would be amazing," too.
"I've done Kelly Clarkson's show a couple times, and I marvel at what she does. I can't sing, so you don't have to worry about that with me," Geist says, noting that Clarkson "has that conversational authenticity."
"But yeah, something like [what] Graham Norton does, where it's just a bunch of people on a couch in a loose, casual way," he continues. "I think those definitely would be fun. But for now, I love our Sunday show. I love that I still get to do Morning Joe during the week over on MSNBC. I'm very busy, so not a lot of time for a daytime show at the moment."
While Geist has conducted hundreds of interviews over the years, there are still some names he's waiting to check off, and number one is Taylor Swift.
"Taylor is always at the top of the list, and the invite remains open," he shares.
"Her team, who is wonderful, is always very polite in their passes, but we're going to keep trying," Geist adds with a laugh.
Also on that list is Jay-Z...and if Beyoncé wants to pop in, he says, "Obviously we're open to that as well."
"We've done this for nine years, so the minute you think, 'Oh, we've had everybody on the show,' you come up with a list of people who are still out there," Geist points out. "And then the good thing is, new stars come up, people that we wouldn't have known about a few years ago that suddenly you want to sit down and talk with. The world is large and there's always going to be stars that you haven't talked to and new ones that you want to."
Watch Geist's recent interview with Nate Bargatze on Sunday TODAY with Willie Geist on Feb. 2
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