Craig Melvin will keep it in the NBC family when he replaces Hoda Kotb on the “TODAY” show early next year.
Kotb, 60, announced on the legacy morning show Thursday that as of Jan. 10, Melvin, 45, will move from co-anchoring the 9 a.m. hour to join Savannah Guthrie in co-anchoring the 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. block.
A “beyond excited and grateful” Melvin said the promotion is “the latest in a long line of blessings.”
His predecessor said Melvin was “literally made for this job” and “the right person for it.”
News that Kotb will pass the torch to Melvin comes less than two months after the network veteran revealed in late September that she would be leaving “TODAY” after nearly two decades — including five spent as co-anchor.
“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” she said of her milestone birthday the month prior.
Though she told staffers she was “making the right decision,” Kotb acknowledged it was “a painful one” that would be ending “the longest professional love affair of my life.”
