t was certainly a morning of surprise for Savannah Guthrie and her co-anchors on NBC’s TODAY Show on Wednesday July 16 when they entered the PopStart segment.

Helmed as usual by their pop culture correspondent and TV veteran Carson Daly, the newest edition of the morning news show covered a round-up of news from the entertainment world, including upcoming films like Oh, The Places You’ll Go! and The Map That Leads to You.

Another among those was the upcoming documentary Stans, set to explore the career of legendary rapper Eminem (and titled after one of his own hits) through the eyes of his superfans.

Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin © Getty Images
Savannah joined her co-stars in surprise about their co-host’s revelation of a new role

The documentary will be released this August and an official logline describes it as an exploration of the “complicated relationship between one of the world’s most private artists and his massive public persona” through rare archival footage and exclusive interviews.

Carson introduced the trailer for the feature on the show, which led the rest of the team beside him on the couch, including Savannah, Craig Melvin, Al Roker and Jenna Bush Hager to devolve into a discussion about stan culture and the definition of “stans” in general.

Jenna asked whether they could play the actual 2000 song “Stan” to familiarize them with it, while Craig joked that it was “based on the dinosaur,” confusing Al and Savannah further.

Carson Daly speaks on stage during the first MTV "TRL Awards" at the MTV Times Square Studios on February 6, 2003 in New York City© Getty Images
Carson will appear in “Stans” as an expert interview

Carson tried to rein them back in to discuss the subject at hand, saying: “The documentary’s going to be great, I’m in it,” with his casual admission quickly taking his co-hosts aback.

“You’re in it?!” both Savannah and Jenna shouted in unison, with Al and Craig echoing that he’d “buried the lead.” Jenna added: “Why didn’t you say that?”

The host of The Voice quipped back to Savannah: “I know you’re not excited about it, and I want you to be,” and she in turn responded: “Of course I’m excited, you just made me more excited about it!”

Eminem poses for a photo with Carson Daly on set of TRL at the MTV Studios in New York City on May 10, 2000. © Getty Images
“I’m one of the few people that was obviously there from the beginning of Em’s career.”

Carson clarified to his co-anchors that he appears in the documentary as one of the experts commenting on Eminem’s career and growth, having been around to see his rise since the very beginning as one of the premiere names in entertainment when he hosted MTV’s TRL from 1998-2003.

“I’m one of the few people that was obviously there from the beginning of Em’s career,” he noted, which led his colleagues to joke about how they’re so close he can call him “Em,” with Jenna poking fun at him a bit more by asking him to “tell Em Savannah and I are stans.”

This led to a series of running jokes throughout the rest of the show with Savannah and Jenna proclaiming they’re “stans” for a bunch of different things, like the new Superman film leading to an increase in dog adoptions and Zac Brown Band’s upcoming concert at the TODAY Plaza.

The Today Show anchors celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Today Plaza© NBC News
The TODAY anchors pledged more sincerely to catch the documentary because of his involvement

At one point, while he tried to continue with his show, Carson even deadpanned that it was becoming “difficult to do this right now” while his co-hosts continued to joke, with Al quickly apologizing on their behalf.

By the end of PopStart, they even gave him kudos for powering through their comments, and Craig concluded with: “Can’t tell these people nothing.”