A Day of Gaffes, Brought to You By Live TV

It's National Awkward Moments on TV Talk Shows Day! -- a.k.a. Why We Love Live TV Day.

Meredith Vieira kicked things off just after 7 a.m. yesterday when her "Today" co-host Matt Lauer asked her rhetorically -- by way of alerting viewers to the day's Tostitos November Sweeps Chick-Magnet News Story -- "What is the right age to get married?"

"I don't know; I got married in my 30s," Vieira answered, mistaking it for an actual question, and adding, "When did you get married?"

"Uh . . . " responded Lauer, who, according to WaPo Team TV's Matt Lauer Love Life Timeline, divorced Starter Wife Nancy Alspaugh in 1988, and 10 years later married model Annette Roque, who filed for divorce from Lauer in 2006 while pregnant with their third child, though they reportedly are still together.

"Nice!" said some guy off-camera while other guys are heard snickering.

"Oh! . . . Anyway," Vieira said, "I'm sorry -- geesh!"

"Let's just start this show over," Lauer said. "On average, in this country women get married at 26, men at 28 -- those are the average. But how does your age impact your choice of a mate? And your chances for living happily ever after, probably the more important question. We'll get into that later," Lauer said, trying to recover.

But Vieira, who knows a YouTubeable Moment when she steps in one, wasn't through:

"I don't think I'm the one that lives happily ever after, after this show," she said, giggling faux mortification, then hid her face with her hand as an uncomfortable Lauer vamped, "Let's just move on and begin with: President-elect Obama's high-profile visit to the White House."

Not even a full hour later, on another of the Networks of NBC Universal 2.0, "Morning Joe's" Joe Scarborough and co-host Willie Geist were discussing Barack Obama's newly named chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel.

Specifically, they were discussing what they called his "gesturing disability." Seems that in 2005, Obama roasted Emanuel who, years earlier, had lost part of the middle finger on one hand in a meat-slicing machine.

Obama joked that the loss of part of his middle finger rendered Emanuel, who has a reputation of being something of a pit bull without lipstick, "practically mute."