“Today” has discovered its alternative for Hoda Kotb.
Craig Melvin is taking up Kotb’s function on the NBC daytime program.
Kotb, 60, shared the information on Thursday morning, whereas additionally confirming her final day on the present is Friday, January 10.
“I am beyond excited and grateful,” stated Melvin, 45. “I’ve enjoyed just a lifetime of blessings and this is the latest in a long line of blessings.”
Kotb instructed Melvin that he was “literally made for this job.” She added, “You have all the things this job needs. You are the right person for it.”
She additionally referred to her upcoming last day on the job as a “party day.”
Kotb has been co-anchoring the primary two hours of “Today” with Savannah Guthrie, 52.
She’s additionally the co-host of the ten a.m. present “Today with Hoda and Jenna” alongside Jenna Bush Hager, 42. She beforehand did the present with Kathie Lee Gifford from 2008 till Gifford’s exit in 2019.
“Today” additionally confirmed that Bush Hager will likely be joined by rotating visitor co-hosts on the fourth hour present, earlier than her everlasting co-host is introduced.
Melvin grew to become an anchor on “Today” in Aug. 2018. 5 months later, he was named a everlasting co-host on the third hour of the present alongside Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones and Dylan Dreyer.
Kotb introduced her exit from “Today” after 26 years in September.
She shared the information in-person together with her co-anchors, together with Melvin and Bush Hager.
“I have spent 26 years at NBC,” she stated. “I just turned 60, and it was such a monumental moment for me, because I started thinking about that decade. I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60 and to try something new.”
“I decided that this is the right time to move on,” Kotb shared, including that she desires to spend extra time together with her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5.
In a letter to “Today” workers, Kotb stated, “I’ve been weighing this decision for quite a while — Am I truly ready? But, my sixtieth birthday celebration on the Plaza felt like a shift. Like a massive, joyful YES, you are! I saw it all so clearly: my broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie.”
“I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited,” she added.
In an interview with E! Information final month, Kotb opened up about whom she’d like to exchange her on “Today.”
The one that I need is somebody who has lovely chemistry with Jenna [Bush Hager],” she shared. “That’s all I want. Because it’s never about either anchor, it’s about what’s between. So bring the chemistry.”
