Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
“The latex community is after me,” Scott Tweedie told me last week as we sat on the 30 Rock set of E!’s Pop of the Morning, the network’s newest morning offering. After a segment ran the day before about wearing latex, inspired by recent Kardashian looks, natch, he heard from a viewer who wanted to be sure he knew that actually, “oil ruins latex.”
“I wanted her on the show today, I was like, ‘Bring her in!’” he said excitedly, likely due to the fact that the hour-long E! show is gaining more engaged viewers by the day. “One tweet does not make a community,” Lilliana Vazquez reminded her co-host with a smile. The two have been hosting E! News for about 10 weeks now, after Tweedie moved to New York from Australia at the end of last year and Vazquez moved up from her role as a correspondent on the Today show and Access Hollywood, already a valued member of the NBC Universal family. The duo delivers the latest entertainment news every weekday morning at 7am, which reairs at 10:30am and leads right into Pop of the Morning, where they’re joined by Victor Cruz, former New York Giants wide receiver (and Super Bowl XLVI winner, nbd). The show allows the trio to not just highlight the latest in celebrity news and trends, but to also riff on stories and share elements of their own personalities and lives.
The day I visited the live show, I was one of about eight people in the small space, which included camera operators, producers, publicists, and talent bookers. “In terms of a TV studio, it’s small but then we can do so much with this space,” Tweedie said. “There are so many areas we can move around,” he added, noting his enjoyment of the permanent blue skies on the screens and simply grateful to be working in the iconic 30 Rock building. The studio is used for both E! News and then turned over for Pop of the Morning, but as Cruz put it, “Give us a cubicle with three chairs, we’ll make it happen.”
Much of this is due to the chemistry the three hosts have already cultivated after working together for less than three months. Maybe it’s early days, or maybe, just maybe, these three actually enjoy working together. It’s a rare concept in the entertainment industry, but it was an effortless vibe in the studio that morning, as they would briefly glance at their phones during breaks, but spend the rest of the time chatting, joking, and planning their next TikToks with each other.
“It’s the most unique mix of three people, I feel,” Tweedie offered. “When Lilliana and I first met, we straight away found things that we had in common and some things we didn’t have in common. It was easy to explore,” he said. And as for Cruz, well, Tweedie had no idea who he was, “Which was great,” Cruz said.
“I was like, who’s this stylish dude and why’s he so cool?” Tweedie said with a laugh. “Everybody’s like, that’s Victor Cruz! And I was like, that still doesn’t mean anything to me. Did a google, watched his highlights reel and was like, oooh, he’s awesome. And then day number one on-air, all my Australian friends that watch American football were blown away. I’m like, ‘He’s just a friend.'”
“It’s just been crazy, for us to really meet each other and be able to dissect and talk and not be afraid to jump into topics that we probably wouldn’t talk about normally,” Cruz said. “But we all own it and we love it and we talk about it openly and freely, so to have that dynamic between the three of us so early on is really rare.”
It’s the feeling of safety with her co-hosts that Vazquez cherishes most, saying, “We are on live television, so I might ask him a question that he’s not super comfortable answering, but he knows that I’m gonna support him through that question. Whatever he says, I’m gonna go with that and take his direction. I think feeling safe with each other is why the chemistry works. At the end of the day, they’re gonna back me up and I’m gonna back them up and that’s hard to find. That’s a really, really nice feeling to have in the studio in this environment.”
It’s not just that these three enjoy being friends with each other — it’s that we as viewers also want in on this friendship. Vazquez is the bubbly bestie with unquestionable taste in fashion; one glance at the super sweet Tweedie suggests he could be related to the Hemsworths more than any 23andMe test could confirm, and Cruz just might be the coolest dude on the planet — and on top of all that, they’re individually incredibly warm, welcoming, and kind: both to me visiting for the morning, but also to all their coworkers they see every day. My own suspicions that the group is indeed true #friendgoals was confirmed when I learned that they have a standing lunch about every two weeks, where Tweedie enjoys an Old Fashioned while Cruz and Vazquez opt for “tequila rocks, little bit of lime and simple syrup.” And their first order of business once Tweedie’s girlfriend Maddie makes the move to New York and Cruz’s girlfriend, actress Karrueche Tran, is free from shooting the next season of Claws on TNT, is rounding up Vazquez’s husband Patrick and making it a triple date.
Though it’s likely that date will happen during “early bird hours” as Vazquez puts it, explaining that she’ll enjoy dinner at 5 or 5:30pm but has to “be in bed by a certain time otherwise I’m a disaster on five hours of sleep. And we’re live. You have to have a certain level of sharpness. I just haven’t adjusted yet. Hopefully during the next month.”
Though can one ever really adjust to being in a car every morning by 3:45am in order to make it to work by 4am? Cruz is…trying. While he doesn’t report in until later, he’s adjusted his schedule to be in sync with his co-hosts, opting to hit his workouts first thing in the morning so all three can share the same early morning pain. “I gotta be on same page as these guys, one way or another,” he said, sharing his new motto, “One band, one sound.”
“I never stopped with the jet lag so I’m still on Australian hours,” Tweedie joked. “It’s not that hard, but every weekend I fall out of sync. Friday afternoon hits, I’ll nap for a couple of hours and then I’m back [on the same schedule] as my friends. I’ll go out Friday night and Saturday night probably do the same. I’ll have a sleep in and that ruins your Monday morning, that’s always hard. But apart from that, I don’t even entertain invites during the week. You [may seem] anti-social to your friends but when summer kicks around, we could be in a pool at one in the afternoon somewhere in New York. So we’re the afternoon party, we’re not the night party.”
But what do they credit for getting this party started when it has to — and first thing in the morning? Eye masks, of course. “They both wear eye masks every day,” Vazquez whispered to me, as we discussed Cruz’s recent Instagram post, which even introduced the likes of rapper Curren$y to the wonder that is eye masks. Even Cruz learned about their benefits, including that they’re “energy for your face and picking up your eyes. I’m just introducing people to new things,” he said with a smile.
“It just feels like if you’ve got your fingers under a cold tap and you put your fingers there,” Tweedie said, demonstrating with both of his index fingers placed directly under his eyes. “We’re not quite the freaks yet that are on planes wearing them,” he added. “I do that,” Vasquez said softly. “I skincare at all times, especially on red-eyes.”
But the biggest problems these hosts encounter are likely not under-eye bags, but delivering an informative entertaining hour of television every morning in 2020, in a world filled with horrific headlines about everything from endless illnesses to politics. But this is E! after all, and the daytime show is designed to take your mind off those things while not ignoring them entirely. And if any bunch can float through segments about latex clothing, boy band members, conducting an interview with Queer Eye’s Tan France, and then taste-testing Girl Scout cookies, it’s this group.
“For me, the rule is: if it’s an entertainment headline, we’re talking about it,” Vazquez explained, comparing it to “the brunch conversations that bring you together, not the brunch conversations that have the potential to tear you apart. It’s the conversations I want to have with my friends and still love them when I leave.” Well, minus the Girl Scout cookie discussion, as all three had differing opinions on the definitive treat. “I will take them on when it comes to cookies,” Vazquez joked.
“It’s highlighting the big-ticket items, giving the people the information that they need, and then keeping it going because we want people to smile,” Cruz said. “We want people to have fun, get their day started with us and be happy.”
Each of the hosts brings their strengths to the show, which includes knowing the hottest new songs months before they drop for Cruz and fangirling over the Vanderpump Rules cast for Vazquez, but they all expressed excitement at seeing how the show shifts and changes as it continues. “We’re only spring chickens, we’re two months into our show,” Tweedie said. “You could come back in six months and it could look pretty different or could be exactly the same. We’re in that exciting stage where we can try things out.”
Cruz points to social media as well where he looks forward to “showing the other side of us, doing funny things together, showing more of our personality, more than what you get during the hour we’re on television.” He was also looking forward to showing Tweedie and Vazquez around Giants stadium for an upcoming segment, and all three mentioned the Met Gala in May as an event they were looking forward to covering. “I’ve been twice,” Cruz informed his co-hosts when they asked if he ever attended as a guest. He didn’t say it in a way that was arrogant, but in a way that can’t help but remind us all that he’s just as much a celebrity as the people they report on each morning.
“There’s so much interesting diversity and life stories [between us]; I don’t think you see that a lot on daytime TV,” Vazquez said. “I couldn’t ask for two better co-hosts, I’m so lucky.”
Pop of the Morning airs weekdays at 11am ET/PT on E!.
