“Today” has found its replacement for Hoda Kotb.
Craig Melvin is taking over Kotb’s role on the NBC daytime program.
Kotb, 60, shared the news on Thursday morning, while also confirming her last day on the show is Friday, January 10.
“I am beyond excited and grateful,” said Melvin, 45. “This is the latest in a long line of blessings.”
Kotb has been co-anchoring the first two hours of “Today” with Savannah Guthrie, 52.
She’s also the co-host of the 10 a.m. show “Today with Hoda and Jenna” alongside Jenna Bush Hager, 42. She previously did the show with Kathie Lee Gifford from 2008 until Gifford’s exit in 2019.
A source told People that Bush Hager will have rotating guest co-hosts on the fourth hour show.
“It will be Today with Jenna and Friends until a new host is named,” the source shared. “It’ll be a full-bodied rotation of people. Some expected, some who are in the family already and some unexpected. They don’t know where it’s going to land,” says the source.
Melvin became an anchor on “Today” in Aug. 2018. Five months later, he was named a permanent co-host on the third hour of the show alongside Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones and Dylan Dreyer.
Kotb announced her exit from “Today” after 26 years in September.
She shared the news in-person with her co-anchors, including Melvin and Bush Hager.
“I have spent 26 years at NBC,” she said. “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, adding that she wants to spend more time with her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5.
In a letter to “Today” staff, Kotb said, “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! News last month, Kotb opened up about whom she’d like to replace her on “Today.”
The person who I want is someone who has beautiful 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.”
