Jenna Bush Hager is trying to work her matchmaker magic once again — this time on live television.
Comedian Matt Rogers kicked off his week-long stint as Bush Hager’s guest host on Today With Jenna & Friends on Monday, August 4. At the beginning of the broadcast, Bush Hager, 43, showed a clip of Rogers, 35, and his BFF Bowen Yang on a recent episode of the web series Hot Ones Versus.
Playing off the pair’s quirky categories for their Las Culturistas Culture Awards — which air on Bravo Tuesday, August 5 — Yang, 34, asked Rogers to name his pick for the “risk it all award for biggest current celebrity crush.” Instead of eating a hot wing, Rogers opted to answer honestly.
“Jonathan Groff, I’ve always been interested,” he said in the clip. “I think we should have a drink.”
Back in the Today show studio on Monday, Rogers quickly became bashful. “You can’t elevate it like this because now it’s gonna become a real thing,” he teased.
Bush Hager, however, disagreed. “But why not? Shoot your shot,” she said before referencing a celebrity love story that turned all of Us into hopeless romantics. “Remember when Travis Kelce asked Taylor Swift out via a friendship bracelet?”
“So you think this is the gay version of that?” Rogers quipped, earning an enthusiastic “yes!” from Bush Hager.
When asked whether he’d heard from Groff, 40, since the Hot Ones video dropped, Rogers joked that the actor is probably a little “busy” with his role in the Broadway musical Just in Time.
“Don’t do this, don’t have him run out,” Rogers said, frantically looking around the studio. “He needs vocal rest.”
While Groff wasn’t waiting in the wings, Bush Hager made sure he knew there’s an open invitation for him to join the show. “I love setting people up, please let me do this,” she teased as Rogers blushed. “[Jonathan], you’re invited here anytime this week or next. It’d be so fun, I think you guys would be perfect together.”
Rogers joked, “This is too much,” before doubling down on his date idea. “I will say this, like I said on Hot Ones, I’m interested in a drink. I think it could be fun,” he said. “But also, whatever. I can’t be on television doing this. And the thing is, it’s live. And that’s why this is must-see TV.”
Bush Hager gave one last plea for Groff to “slide into” Rogers’ DMs, but the podcaster noted that Groff is off-the-grid when it comes to social media.
By now, plenty of fans have the story of Swift and Kelce’s meet-cute committed to memory. The NFL star, 35, revealed during an episode of his and Jason Kelce‘s “New Heights” podcast in summer 2023 that he wanted to give Swift, also 35, a friendship bracelet with his phone number on it when he attended one of her Eras Tour concerts in Kansas City. The pair didn’t cross paths at the show, but Swift later reached out, and their relationship was confirmed when she attended her first Kansas City Chiefs game that fall.
Swift later told TIME that Travis putting her “on blast” was “metal as hell” while speaking publicly about their relationship for the first time.
“Football is awesome, it turns out,” she joked in the 2023 interview. “I’ve been missing out my whole life.”
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