Craig Melvin Remembers Meeting Wife Lindsay Czarniak On-Air on NBC

The TODAY co-anchor and his wife of 14 years had viewers watching the first time they met.

A producer counting down in Craig Melvin’s ear during a return from a commercial break at NBC’s Washington station in 2008 was unwittingly counting the seconds until Craig met his future wife.

The TODAY co-anchor recounted on Jenna & Friends on Nov. 3 how he met his wife of 14 years, Lindsay Czarniak, when the two appeared live on the air together on WRC-TV in the nation’s capital.

“Back then there was no hard-launching,” Craig said. “This is 2008, and I did it the old-fashioned way — I stalked her at work.”

“This was when you could do that. You could meet at work. You could date at work. I knew who she was before I got there.”

Lindsay had been in Beijing covering the Olympics for the network when Craig was first hired by NBC’s Washington station. One day Craig was on air talking to a producer between commercials with his back turned when his future wife surprised him. She had returned from China to get back to her normal schedule.

“And I turned, and the guy filling in for her wasn’t there. I didn’t know that, and I turned and I’m like, ‘Oh, hey, uh,’ and so I got a little tongue-tied,” Craig remembered. “I was like, ‘Hey, welcome back from the Olympics,’ and she’s like, ‘Welcome to Channel 4, loser. She didn’t say ‘loser,’” he joked.

That serendipitous moment played a role in their 2011 wedding.

“So she pulled the video for our rehearsal dinner,” Craig said. “So we met on the air. I guess technically we did. We met on NBC.”

Craig and Lindsay also spoke with Sheinelle Jones on TODAY in 2021 about their first meeting.

“I had just gotten back from Beijing, and he was hired,” Lindsay said. “I didn’t know him, but I slid in, and we met during a commercial break. And I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’”

Three years later, Craig proposed to Lindsay on a boat in Miami.

The couple celebrated their 14th wedding anniversary in October and are parents of two children: Delano, 11, and Sybil, 8.