After 17 years, Hoda Kotb is officially bidding farewell to the Today show.
Kotb, 60, appeared on her final episode of the NBC morning show on Friday, January 10. The day started off on a tearful note as she cried after watching a video package of Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Carson Daly singing her praises. In return, she shared her own kind words about her colleagues.
“Carson, you’re like the secret sauce on the show, man. Without you, the show doesn’t hum,” Kotb gushed during the show’s second hour. “Al, you’re my first friend here, the first person I met. When I got sick, you were the first person who walked into the room and said I was gonna be OK.”
She continued: “Savannah, oh, my God. You’re my person, you’re my person. You know who shows up for everybody? This girl. … She’s in the room, she’s always in the room, and I love you. Craig, I’m so happy for you. You’e earned this, you own this, and come Monday at 7 o’clock a.m., I am gonna be dead asleep. But you’re gonna be fantastic. You’re gonna bring it home. Craig, you’re gonna be so good. You and Savannah are gonna be magic.”l
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In September 2024, Kotb announced she was departing the series. “I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new. This is the right time for me to move on,” she explained at the time, adding that her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5 — whom she adopted with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman — contributed to her decision.
Kotb joined NBC News in April 1998, serving as a correspondent for the national network and Dateline before becoming the host of the fourth hour of the Today show in September 2007. Kathie Lee Gifford stepped in as her cohost from April 2008 to April 2019, before Jenna Bush Hager took over the role. After Matt Lauer’s sudden exit from the Today show following sexual harassment allegations, Kotb was named coanchor in January 2018 alongside Guthrie, 53.
Kotb elaborated on her exit in a letter shared on Today.com in September 2024.
“As I write this, my heart is all over the map,” she noted. “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.”
Kotb went on to detail why she ultimately chose to say goodbye.
“I’ve been weighing this decision for quite a while — am I truly ready?” she continued. “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.”
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Nathan Congleton/NBC Hoda Kotb’s nearly 20 years on the Today show have been full of many memorable moments. The TV personality announced in September 2024 that she would be departing the iconic morning show after 26 years on NBC, 16 years as a Today cohost and seven years as Savannah Guthrie’s co-anchor. “I just turned […]
Kotb concluded by confirming that she would stay involved at NBC in some capacity. “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,” she gushed. “I’ll be around. How could I not? Family is family and you all will always be a part of mine.”
In November 2024, NBC announced that Melvin, 45, will take over as Guthrie’s Today coanchor starting on Monday, January 13. Meanwhile, a rotating lineup of guest hosts will fill in on Today With Jenna & Friends until a permanent replacement for Kotb is selected.
Scroll down to see the biggest moments from Kotb’s final Today episode celebration:
A Purple Plaza
For her final time greeting fans on the Today Plaza, Guthrie walked Kotb through a spirit tunnel comprised of Today show workers sporting purple beanies and waving purple pom poms. Joking that the day was “Hoda’s Eras Tour,” Guthrie revealed that their Today colleagues and fans were sporting Kotb-themed friendship bracelets. Third hour cohost Dylan Dreyer even traveled back to New York City after covering the Los Angles wildfires to be with Kotb on her big day.
Muppets Sing-Along
Kermit the Frog joined Kotb, Haley, Hope and the Today hosts in the studio to sing the famous track “Rainbow Connection,” which Kotb plays for her kids every night and she listened to on her way to work that morning.“
Hoda, you truly do make every day as beautiful as a rainbow,” Kermit said as the song began, during which the group chimed in to sing along.
“I love you, I love that song, I love everything about it,” Kotb stated before pointing out more of her family members in the studio. “Mom, I love you,” she said into the camera.”
A Message from Mom
Several of Kotb’s friends and family members were in the audience of her final live Hoda & Jenna episode. Her mom, Sameha, was unable to attend, but congratulated her daughter in a pre-recorded video message.
“When I turn the TV on and I see Hodie, I see her smile. I love that. And just to listen to what she has to say,” Sameha gushed. “I check to see what is she wearing. Is she wearing the dress that I sent her or something else? And how’s her hair?”
Sameha went on to recall how Kotb knew she wanted to be on TV after working on a radio show during her time at Virginia Tech. She eventually landed her gig at Dateline before making her Today debut in 2007.
“She FaceTimes me, by the way, every morning. But I see the girls and Hodie, and I said to her one day, ‘You don’t have to do that every day.’ [She said], ‘Yes, we do!’ That’s the way she is,” Sameha added. “Hodie, I’m proud of you and I’m sure you’re going to be doing great work later on. And I love you so much.”
A tearful Kotb gave her mom’s video message a standing ovation.
Hoda’s Look-Alike
While Bush Hager announced that winners of a Kotb look-alike contest would be coming out on the show, it was actually a set-up to bring out their first celebrity guest of the episode, Gayle King. Poking fun at the pair’s physical resemblance, King gifted Kotb a T-shirt featuring her face on the front and King’s on the back, which read, “Hoda. Not Hoda.”
“Just today coming into the building, I swear to God, somebody said, ‘Hey, can I take your picture?’ And he took it and I said, ‘Who do you think I am?’ And he said, ‘You’re Hoda!’ And I said, ‘No, no I’m not,’” King joked, while Kotb noted she also gets frequently mistaken with her fellow TV host.
An NBC Send-Off
Jimmy Fallon popped by the congratulate Kotb on the end of her Today, run, gifting her a framed piece of the NBC logo carpet from the elevators in 30 Rock. “I entitled it ‘Onward and Upward’ ‘cause you’re getting on the elevator and going up, right?” he joked. “But then I signed it, and then no one can read my writing. My handwriting’s so bad so it looks like it says ‘Osmond and Uptown.’”
Kotb went on to praise Fallon for being a great guest over the years, revealing that her daughters call him “Uncle Jimmy.” Fallon, for his part, thanked Haley and Hope for the Christmas gift they gave him. “Haley and Hope, you are the cutest girls ever, and funny, as well,” he told the girls. “And I see you every Thanksgiving Day Parade and you’re always so nice and happy and always coming up to me.
Kathie Lee Returns
After stating in a video message that she couldn’t make it to Kotb’s live final episode, Gifford surprised her former Today cohost in the studio.
“The one thing I had in common with you and with Regis [Philbin] — two very, very different people — I looked forward every single day to being with you both,” she gushed. “And I did and I said, ‘Today, I’m gonna be with Hoda. It’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be fun,’ because you, I’ve always said, she’s sunshine in a bottle.”
In true Kathie Lee & Hoda fashion, the group toasted to Kotb’s next chapter with large glasses of wine. “May you walk into the most joyful, prosperous, purposeful time in your life with those precious daughters that I watched come into your life. What a blessing that was. I’ll never forget it,” Gifford said while giving cheers. “And once those babies came, I knew it was time. ‘She ain’t gonna be here long.’ So, bless you, my dear friend.”
A Tribute to the Fans
In a pre-recorded package, Kotb read a “love letter” she wrote to thank the show’s fans for their support over the years. “16 years ago, I sat next to Kathie Lee and she changed my life. She chose me,” she read. “And truth be told, I was scared. I’d never done anything like this before. … I ripped off that news corset, we poured ourselves a glass of wine, and so it began.”
She recalled how a “new era started” when she began cohosting the fourth hour with Bush Hager. “Six unforgettable years, uncontrollable laughter and pure friendship,” she gushed. “I can hardly even say her name without laughing out loud, but that is not the part I fell in love with. I fell in love with her tears, her vulnerable, lovable self.”
Kotb noted that turning 60 on the show was the “peak” of her time on the show and said “having a front row seat” to fans’ personal journeys has “shaped who I am.”
She concluded: “I’ve become who I am on this hour of this show, and you were there with me every step of the way. So, as I sit here today in my final moments on this final day in this chapter of my career, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my very full heart for the ride of a lifetime. I love you.”
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