Gone in a flash
MOBBED: Vieira dances in Rock Center with her “Today” co-hosts, crew and surprise guests. (
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“Today” sent Meredith Vieira off with a big flash- mob goodbye.
On her last day of her five-year anchoring stint, Vieira’s fellow anchors, show correspondents, staffers and crew surprised her with a choreographed rendition of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin,’ ” performed in the middle of Rockefeller Plaza yesterday morning.
Mixed in with the crowd — each sporting multicolored personalized T-shirts decrying who they are and their love for the 57-year-old anchor — singing and dancing in the plaza, were Abe Vigoda and a guitar-toting Jimmy Fallon.
The farewell broadcast also featured montages of favorite “Today” Vieira moments and taped tributes from Brian Williams, Jack Black and Jay Leno, as well as a surprise performance by Carole King, who performed “You’ve Got a Friend,” a favorite song of Vieira’s from her high-school days.
At the tail end of the show, a teary Vieira joked, “I don’t want to go now, but I went upstairs and they changed the lock on my dressing room door!”
Speaking to her fellow anchors, she added, “You are the best, bar none. It’s such a family, and it’s really hard to leave a family, so I’m not going to say goodbye.”
