In The Grand Tradition Of Daytime TV Costume Nonsense, Here’s How All The Morning Shows Did Halloween
When it comes to the Spooky Season of which we currently find ourselves in, there’s nothing more festive than waking up, turning on the television, and seeing a collection of costumes that are bound to make you say, “What in the sweet spooky fuck is going on here??“. It’s daytime TV’s annual Halloween celebration, which means a whole mess o’ busted costumes, messy wigs, concepts to inspire confusion and a general feeling of second-hand cringe, and references that will look so heinously dated by next year’s Halloween. I mean, when else am I going to see Ryan Seacrest dressed up like a little lad who likes berries and cream, getting manhandled by the anonymous enforcers from Squid Game?
The gold standard for group costumes has always been the cast of The TODAY Show, who have previously pulled out all the stops and driven full-speed into our nightmares with costumes based around the Peanuts gang, the Grand Ole Opry, or just some random-ass dancing theme. This year, whoever was in charge of TODAY’s costumes must have handed the reins over to an intern named Brett Chadley whose only interests are bitcoins and Tom Brady. Because everyone dressed as: Football. This morning on TODAY, the hosts debuted Football Fright in America, a play on Football Night in America, the NFL pre-game show that has aired on NBC since 2006. Honestly, it felt more like a promo for Football Night in America that was cut for time, due to it being less interesting than a Totinos Pizza Rolls commercial.
According to the hosts, costumes were picked based on their favorite football memories. Hoda Kotb was Carrie Underwood, who sings the FNiA theme song (apparently it’s not sung by Jenna Maroney???). Willie Geist and Carson Daly were Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski, Craig Melvin was Patrick Mahomes, Al Roker was this year’s Super Bowl Halftime Show headliner The Weeknd, Sheinelle Jones was 2014 headliner Bruno Mars, and Savannah Guthrie and Jenna Bush Hager were Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Excuse me, but not one picked Jennifer Lopez working the pole at the Super Bowl Halftime Show? And they call themselves serious sports fans.
Over on Live with Kelly & Ryan, their Halloween costumes also skip the spooky and instead look more like a production assistant robbed the SNL costume room. It was all pop culture, or at least the pop culture they could scramble together before Friday’s deadline. Ryan gave you Ted Lasso, while Kelly Ripa did Bridgerton. Ryan also dressed up as a Peloton instructor and Richard Simmons. Both Kelly and Ryan suited up in red hoodies for an homage to ET, climbed out of a pretend spaceship as the crew of Boo Origin, and did The Queen’s Gambit, to the best of two cheap red shake-and-go wig’s abilities.
Good Morning America actually did something legitimately spooky for this year’s Halloween show. Lara Spencer and Michael Strahan did their take on Scream in a pre-taped segment but then dressed like normal people on set for the rest of the show. I guess they cut the part where Michael Strahan says, “This is almost the most terrifying thing I’ve done on morning television!”
Finally, the ladies of The View gave you Halloween, by way of the rabid imagination of a hardcore theater kid, in what they were calling The Viewsical. Sunny Hostin was Deena Jones from Dreamgirls, Sara Haines was Satine from Moulin Rouge!, Joy Behar earned a raise negotiation meeting when she busted out the Time Warp as Magenta from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Whoopi Goldberg delivered Audrey II’s over-it cousin from Little Shop of Horrors.
Let's give a huge round of applause to #TheView team behind our #TheVIEWsical Halloween show! 👏 pic.twitter.com/ErG1NUXjHm
— The View (@TheView) October 29, 2021
From 'Dreamgirls,' it's our @Sunny Hostin as Deena Jones! #TheVIEWsical pic.twitter.com/gSo4p9oNa9
— The View (@TheView) October 29, 2021
Swinging in from ‘Moulin Rouge!,’ it's @SaraHaines as Satine! #TheVIEWsical pic.twitter.com/OyMfBrR9XI
— The View (@TheView) October 29, 2021
All the way from 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show,' it's @JoyVBehar as Magenta! #TheVIEWsical pic.twitter.com/fA7UWQfGqO
— The View (@TheView) October 29, 2021
It's hungry Audrey II from ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ played by our amazing @WhoopiGoldberg with some help from @JeremyMJordan from @littleshopnyc! #TheVIEWsical pic.twitter.com/Clf3jpGZuQ
— The View (@TheView) October 29, 2021
The View put in a ton of work on that Viewsical. And while I’m sure the audience at home appreciated what was basically some thinly veiled free advertising for the recently re-opened Broadway, they did not have to go so hard! Whoopi was literally locked into a giant foam rubber plant costume. And something tells me Broadway wasn’t all the hosts’ first choice. It’s timely, sure. But you know Joy was looking into renting a Wizard of Oz costume so she could continue to celebrate Meghan McCain’s exit from the show by singing, “Ding dong the witch is dead.”
Pic: ABC