I was [shocked]. I think it was a shock to everybody, i don’t know how you couldn’t be surprised.I started filling in for Matt in 2010. I wasn’t close to him outside of work, but I considered him a friend and mentor. Certainly he was somebody I looked up to.He was the guy who was considered the best at that job, at hosting a morning show.So, yeah, I think we were all surprised and I think we’re all still a little bit shocked by it.

Willie Geist

Categorized in : Entertainment

An ideal day starts with putting on a good, smart, fun show where I learn something and ends with me fending off atomic knee drops from my two kids in our no-holds-barred pillow fight/steel cage matches. They are a ruthless tag team.

Willie Geist

smart team fun

I was a big Dave Winfield guy growing up.

Willie Geist

dave growing-up guy

Sometimes @BrookeShields rolls into your party dressed as a Christmas tree, carrying a bucket of KFC. pic.twitter.com/DTtZkZY4cB

Willie Geist

kfc party tree

I hope I pass on my dad's good humor, work ethic and lack of self-seriousness. Our house was always a fun place where you'd get knocked around quickly if you took yourself too seriously.

Willie Geist

dad self fun

I often eat Skippys Super Chunk peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon. I dont shamefully sneak it in the dark of night when everyone is in bed. I just twist that cap off and go to town right out in the open.

Willie Geist

sneak-in dark night

My dad was always fascinated and amused by Trump, so I learned to be fascinated and amused by Trump.

Willie Geist

amused trump dad

I keep my politics a little closer to me than others do.

Willie Geist

littles

I'm not a huge luck guy. I think you make your own luck. I don't really believe in some other force making your own luck.

Willie Geist

guy believe thinking

When youre young, the blue blazer feels like a grown-up costume.

Willie Geist

blazers costumes blue

What can you say about Guy's cooking that hasn't been printed on a packet of cigarettes?

Willie Geist

cigarette guy cooking

Guy Fieri's hair is the front lawn to hell.

Willie Geist

hell guy hair

I treat Twitter like a news feed. I follow you guys, I follow every news organization - left, right, center, and everything in between - and it's like a ticker on my phone. For me it's that you have to wade through the people who wish you were dead - and I have to respect their opinions - but it helps me stay on top of the news.

Willie Geist

phones organization people

I think there's something about the homemade birthday cake, because my wife, on my daughter's first birthday, started the tradition where she takes a full cake and cuts the number birthday out of it.

Willie Geist

cutting daughter birthday

Nashville, man. That's the place to be.

Willie Geist

nashville men

New York, it's people. It's grit. It's diversity of people. It's diversity of industry. In L.A. everyone's looking over their shoulder because one of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills just walked in. They value the wrong things.

Willie Geist

real new-york people

I never drink coffee, can you believe that? Works in morning television, doesn't drink coffee.

Willie Geist

coffee morning believe

Bacon. Crispy. Salty. I could just eat a mountain of bacon for breakfast; it's so delicious.

Willie Geist

delicious mountain breakfast

I think President Obama has always been a little bit underestimated. Some of the things he's done with foreign policy have been unassailable. Getting us out of Iraq, killing Osama Bin Laden.

Willie Geist

iraq president thinking

In a tradition second in wonderful absurdity only to 60-year-old baseball managers wearing uniforms and spikes in the dugout, golf spectators come dressed ready to play 18.

Willie Geist

ready tradition play golf

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the blue blazer's a bit of a loose cannon. A suit decided long ago what it wanted to be, and it doesn't want to hear your ideas, but a blue blazer only got around to half the job. So it leaves it up to you to find its bottoms. Gray slacks, blue jeans, patterns, white pants and different blue shades all work.

Willie Geist

you wisdom work blue