“Dirty Jobs” host Mike Rowe may regret appearing on NBC’s “TODAY Show” alongside his mother after she announced to the world that he once mailed her a baby bottle filled with semen from a prize stallion.
The two appeared on the show to promote Peggy Rowe’s new book — “Vacuuming in the Nude: And Other Ways to Get Attention” — during the third hour on Monday, and host Sheinelle Jones made the mistake of asking Rowe whether he had ever sent “cool, random gifts” to his mother while traveling to film “Dirty Jobs.”
WATCH:
Wherein @mikeroweworks's mother announces on live TV that he once mailed her a bottle of horse semen … pic.twitter.com/4jZTDx4ZAs
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) August 16, 2022
“You got to travel a lot of interesting places for ‘Dirty Jobs’ do you send your mom cool, random gifts?” Jones asked.
“Oh, terrible things,” Rowe laughed. “Terrible things.”
“Like what?” she asked — and then Peggy stepped in to answer.
“Well, he worked on a quarter horse farm in Texas and he sent me a bottle of semen from a world famous stallion …” she said, prompting shocked looks all around.
“It’s an artificial insemination show,” Rowe tried to explain. “Al, you have to picture it —”
“No, I don’t have to. I really don’t,” co-host Al Roker laughed.
“She put it on the mantle and for years it was a lovely conversation piece,” Rowe joked.
But according to Rowe, the best part of the conversation might have occurred after the cameras were off and he and his mother were leaving the show.
Rowe posted a part of the exchange on Facebook, along with a snap of him with his mother backstage at NBC.
Mom: How do you think that went?
Me: Pretty good, all things considered.
Mom: All thing considered?
Me: Yeah. Considering the fact you just told America I mailed you a baby bottle filled with semen, I thought it went great.
Mom: Oh, should I not have said that?
Me: It’s ‘The Today Show,’ mom. Baby bottles filled with semen are not a traditional topic of conversation.
Mom: Well, the lady asked if you ever sent me any weird presents while you were filming ‘Dirty Jobs.’ And that was a pretty weird present.
Rowe then appeared to forget she had clarified during the segment that it was semen from a champion stallion and suggested that viewers might have assumed it was actually from a human.
“Do you think they thought I was talking about … your semen?” Peggy asked.
“I sure hope not,” Rowe replied. “But if we’re never invited back to ‘The Today Show,’ we’ll know why.”