According to Deadline, Hoda Kotb (Dateline NBC, Curb Your Enthusiasm) has announced that she is stepping down as co-anchor of NBC’s Today early next year. The announcement was made during this morning’s show.
Before making her announcement on air, Kotb wrote a memo to Today show staffers explaining her decision to leave, saying, “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.”
Libby Leist (Rock Center with Brian Williams, NBC News Decision 2010), executive vice president of Today and Lifestyle, wrote in a note to staffers that Kotb will “remain part of the NBC/Today family” by remaining as a contributor.
Kotb first joined NBC News as a Dateline correspondent in 1998. In 2007, she became the first host of Today’s first fourth-hour weekday morning broadcast alongside Kathie Lee Gifford (The First Wives Club, The Way). Then, in 2018, she was named co-anchor of Today with Savannah Guthrie (30 Rock, 1600 Penn) after Matt Lauer’s (Zoolander 2, Land of the Lost) termination over sexual harassment allegations. She and Guthrie have been the first female anchor duo to lead the show in its 72-year history.
Today is one of NBC’s marquee shows, outperforming its competitors, ABC’s Good Morning America and CBS Mornings, among the 25 to 54 age demographic for 58 consecutive weeks.
As of now, no successor has been announced for Kotb’s Today role or for the fourth hour, which she currently co-hosts with Jenna Bush Hager (Give, Black Candle Women).