Meteorologist Mike Seidel tells INSIDE EDITION he was not answering the call of nature when the camera cut to him despite the rumors that are flying around about it.
Was a weatherman answering Mother Nature's call instead of reporting on it?
On NBC Nightly News, anchor Lester Holt said, "Obviously Mike's not quite ready for us."
That's sure what it looked like when Holt introduced Weather Channel meteorologist, Mike Seidel, who was reporting from snowy North Carolina Saturday night.
Holt said, "Let's bring in Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel. He's in Sugar Mountain, North Carolina. Hi, Mike."
Dead Silence. There was Seidel, hunched over with his back to the camera. Let's face it. It even looked like he could have been zipping his fly as he started to turn around.
Holt said again, "Well obviously Mike's not quite ready for us."
One of countless tweets on the live TV blunder said, "Now this is streaming video."
There was so much buzz that NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams tried to clear things up on Monday's broadcast.
Williams said, "Mike had lost cell phone contact with our control room, so he couldn't hear through his attached earpiece that he was on air. He put his back to the storm and to the camera. He had to take off his gloves and redial his phone which was tethered to his ear. That's when the rumors hit the Web that he was perhaps writing his name in the snow."
On the Today show, Kathie Lee and Hoda said, "He was actually not, let's use the word, urinating."
Now, the veteran meteorologist is speaking out to INSIDE EDITION.
INSIDE EDITION's Jim Moret asked Seidel, "Just to set the records straight, you were simply dialing the phone trying to reconnect with NBC?"
Watch More of Seidel's Interview with INSIDE EDITION
Seidel responded, "Right. Right before Lester came to me, my cell dropped. I took my gloves off and put them in-between my legs so they wouldn't blow away. We had a big gust up there, 40 to 50 mph. I turned around to shield myself from the wind and all the snow was blowing."
Seidel is known for his wacky trip-ups on the air, but this would have been a wee bit more embarrassing.
He said, "I want to tell you that the Weather Channel does work me hard, but they do give me plenty of time to go to the restroom."
