Longtime NBC “Today” show anchor Hoda Kotb announced Thursday morning that she would leave the show early next year, after 17 years.
Surrounded by other “Today” show fixtures Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager and Al Roker, a tearful Kotb cited turning 60 last month as the moment she decided to leave the show.
“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” Kotb said on air.
Kotb also said she wanted to spend more time with her two young children. In 2023, Kotb took two weeks off from the show because of a “scary stretch” regarding the health of her then-4-year-old daughter.
📰
Follow Media industry
“Obviously I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie,” Kotb said Thursday.
Kotb said she will continue to appear on NBC in some capacity after her departure from “Today.” Roker praised Kotb during the announcement, saying he had never known anyone like her. Guthrie, tearful, said Kotb was leaving “at the top of their game.”
“You have so much guts,” Guthrie told her.
After joining NBC in 1998 as a “Dateline” correspondent, Kotb achieved a new level of prominence on the network in 2008 as the co-host of the fourth hour of “Today,” where she presided over a freewheeling broadcast alongside playful co-host Kathie Lee Gifford — and regular glasses of wine. The pair’s spirited, unpredictable dynamic was sometimes parodied on “Saturday Night Live.”
In November 2017, “Today” co-host Matt Lauer was fired for what the network described as “inappropriate sexual behavior.” Kotb was moved earlier in the “Today” show lineup as Lauer’s emergency replacement, and officially joined Guthrie as the show’s permanent co-anchor in January 2018, marking the first time the show was led by two women.
Kotb’s announcement prompted a wave of nostalgia on social media, both for her co-anchor run on the early hours of “Today” and the more party-like atmosphere she created with Gifford in the fourth hour.
NBC anchor Tom Llamas posted on X that Kotb has “a big career but an even bigger heart.”
“Hoda is all-star journalist and an incredible person,” posted Jesse Rodriguez, MSNBC’s vice president of editorial & booking. “Every time I see her in the halls at 30 Rock, I get a giant hug.”
Surrounded by other “Today” show fixtures Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager and Al Roker, a tearful Kotb cited turning 60 last month as the moment she decided to leave the show.
“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” Kotb said on air.
Kotb also said she wanted to spend more time with her two young children. In 2023, Kotb took two weeks off from the show because of a “scary stretch” regarding the health of her then-4-year-old daughter.
📰
Follow Media industry
“Obviously I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie,” Kotb said Thursday.
Kotb said she will continue to appear on NBC in some capacity after her departure from “Today.” Roker praised Kotb during the announcement, saying he had never known anyone like her. Guthrie, tearful, said Kotb was leaving “at the top of their game.”
“You have so much guts,” Guthrie told her.
After joining NBC in 1998 as a “Dateline” correspondent, Kotb achieved a new level of prominence on the network in 2008 as the co-host of the fourth hour of “Today,” where she presided over a freewheeling broadcast alongside playful co-host Kathie Lee Gifford — and regular glasses of wine. The pair’s spirited, unpredictable dynamic was sometimes parodied on “Saturday Night Live.”
In November 2017, “Today” co-host Matt Lauer was fired for what the network described as “inappropriate sexual behavior.” Kotb was moved earlier in the “Today” show lineup as Lauer’s emergency replacement, and officially joined Guthrie as the show’s permanent co-anchor in January 2018, marking the first time the show was led by two women.
Kotb’s announcement prompted a wave of nostalgia on social media, both for her co-anchor run on the early hours of “Today” and the more party-like atmosphere she created with Gifford in the fourth hour.
NBC anchor Tom Llamas posted on X that Kotb has “a big career but an even bigger heart.”
“Hoda is all-star journalist and an incredible person,” posted Jesse Rodriguez, MSNBC’s vice president of editorial & booking. “Every time I see her in the halls at 30 Rock, I get a giant hug.”
