NEW YORK • Three years after being fired by NBC due to the infamous Access Hollywood tape, Billy Bush is hoping to use his experience in television's wilderness to his advantage in his new job.

He starts today as host of the revamped pop culture news show, Extra. He was just hired as a host on the Today show when a tape emerged during the 2016 presidential campaign of him laughing to lewd remarks made by Mr Donald Trump 11 years earlier before an appearance on TV show, Access Hollywood.

Mr Trump was elected United States president and Bush lost his job. That gave him a unique view from the inside of a media maelstrom and he is using it as a selling point to land interviews with celebrities in similar situations.

"I've already connected with several people... getting the flogging, public shaming and the cancel culture and all that," he said. "I am going to be extremely fair and empathetic of the human condition, which is that we're all hard-wired for good and evil and we're not at our best sometimes."

For competitive reasons, the only example that his executive producer, Ms Lisa Gregorisch-Dempsey, will cite as a guest on his show is a Bachelor In Paradise contestant.

Billy Bush is a cousin of former president George W. Bush.

ASSOCIATED PRESS