Hoda Kotb to Exit NBC’s ‘Today’ in Early 2025 – Hoda Kotb, a beloved mainstay of NBC News’ “TODAY” for nearly two decades, announced on Thursday that she will step down from the network’s flagship morning show early next year.
Hoda Kotb to Exit NBC’s ‘Today’ in Early 2025:
Hoda Kotb is saying goodbye to “Today.”
The 60-year-old journalist announced Thursday morning that she’s leaving the NBC news program.
She’s been with NBC for 26 years.
“As I write this, my heart is all over the map,” she wrote in a letter to “Today” staff. “I know I’m making the right decision, but it’s a painful one. And you all are the reason why.”
“They say two things can be right at the same time, and I’m feeling that so deeply right now. I love you and it’s time for me to leave the show.”
“I’m picturing your faces and your families and all the ways you’ve lifted me up and inspired me. That’s my heart singing. So many of my professional relationships have become some of my most cherished friendships.”
I’ve been weighing this decision for quite a while — Am I truly ready?” she went on. “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.”
Hoda Kotb announces exit from ‘Today’ show after 26 years with NBC:
Kotb shared the news in-person with her co-anchors Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Jenna Bush Hager, Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones.
“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, 4.
“Obviously I had my kids late in life and they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have,” she went on. “With all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world.”
“I’m gonna be here past the first of the year, and I’m gonna stay in the NBC family,” Kotb said. “But it’s kind of a big deal for me.”
She added in her letter, “Happily and gratefully, I plan to remain a part of the NBC family, the longest work relationship I’ve been lucky enough to hold close to my heart. I’ll be around. How could I not? Family is family and you all will always be a part of mine.”
Kotb currently co-anchors the first two hours of “Today” with Guthrie, 52.
She replaced Matt Lauer in January 2018 after Lauer was fired by NBC over sexual harassment and misconduct allegations.
She’s also the co-host of the 10 a.m. show “Today with Hoda and Jenna” alongside Bush Hager, 42. She previously did the show with Kathie Lee Gifford from 2008 until Gifford’s exit in 2019.
Kotb first joined the NBC family in 1998 as a correspondent for “Dateline.” She was added to the “Today” team 10 years later.
Kotb started her broadcast journalism career as a reporter for a news station in Moline, Illinois from 1988 to 1989. She then worked as a weekend anchor and reporter for a CBS affiliate station in Fort Meyers, Florida and then in New Orleans, Louisiana, before she was offered a job by NBC.
The famous journalist also has her own podcast, “Making Space with Hoda Kotb,” that she launched in 2021. She had a one-hour, two-day a week radio show on SiriusXM from 2015 to 2022.
