Hoda Kotb deals with stuck contact lens during 'Today' episode

The anything-can-happen unexpectedness of live television hit NBC’s “Today” on Thursday when co-anchor Hoda Kotb had an eye distress on air.

Sitting with fellow co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager on “Today With Hoda & Jenna,” the fourth hour of the daily morning show, Kotb, 59, suddenly said, “I think I have a contact stuck in my eye, way up here.” As Hager, 42, looked on, Kotb, growing concerned, added, “I don’t think I took it out last night and I can’t find it.”

“I mean, is this a medical emergency?” asked Hager, the journalist daughter of President George W. Bush and granddaughter of President George H.W. Bush.

“Well, it feels like it’s in there. … I’m not kidding,” answered Kotb. “I was going to go to the eye doctor [this morning] but I didn’t have time.” Seeking help from viewers, she suggested, “Maybe people have tricks [as] to how to get it out. Because I’m sure people have had contacts that have rolled up.”

“Yeah. That seems … like it’s an emergency,” reiterated Hager. Trying to keep the atmosphere light, she added jovially, “And also, how can you read [the teleprompter]?”

Following a commercial break, Hager again kept things breezy, announcing with mock seriousness, as Kotb chuckled, “We have breaking news about: Hoda has now lost all eyesight because her other contact fell out.”

Corrected Kotb, “There are two in there,” lost in the eye cavity. She told Hager, “OK, just you read.”

“I’m going to go ahead and read and hopefully when the health person comes, we can resolve this issue,” Hager said, as Kotb laughed. Holding a hand mirror to her face, Kotb noted someone had suggested, “Pull your [eye]lid and look down.” After a moment, Kotb announced she had removed one lens, holding it up on her index finger. “It worked!” she exclaimed.

She did not know if the second lens was still inside her eye cavity or if it possibly had fallen out. Hager, keeping to schedule, segued to the “Girl Code” advice segment. After a few moments, Kotb told her, “I can only see you. … Everything looks super-fuzzy. … It looks like a bunch of just mushed-up colors.”

But then shortly, scheduled guest Ariana DeBose, a star of the new film “Argylle,” walked onstage happily bearing a new pair of lenses.

“She has your contacts!” Hager exclaimed.

“I do!” replied DeBose.

Kotb put in her lenses and held up the remaining one that had been lost in her eye cavity. After a tense moment when she said she could not see, order was restored.