Hoda Kotb to Exit NBC’s Today — Watch Her Emotional Announcement
Hoda Kotb, who has served as co-anchor of NBC’s Today for more than six years, has announced she will leave the morning news program in early 2025.
An emotional Kotb broke the news during Thursday’s Today broadcast, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. As she explained to her Today colleagues, “I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie. We only have a finite amount of time.”
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Kotb noted that she will remain at Today “past the first of the year” and plans to “stay in the NBC family,” but remarked that “this is the right time for me to move on.” You can watch her full announcement via the video embedded below.
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Similar sentiments were shared in a letter to Today staff on Thursday, where Kotb wrote, “I’ve been weighing this decision for quite a while — Am I truly ready? But, my 60th 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.”
Kotb has worked at NBC News in various roles since 1998, when she began as a national correspondent and Dateline contributor. Her tenure at Today dates back to 2008, when she began co-anchoring the show’s fourth hour with Kathie Lee Gifford (a role she still fills at the program, now alongside Jenna Bush Hager). In November 2017, Kotb began filling in at the main anchor desk after Matt Lauer was fired in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations. She was later promoted to full-time co-anchor at the start of 2018; she and Savannah Guthrie have led the 7 to 9 am portion of the broadcast since then.
Will you miss Kotb at Today? Tell us below.
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