Why is Hoda Kotb leaving the “TODAY” show?

We will miss you!
Photo: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images

New York is doing fall cleaning: Eric Adams is indicted (yay!) and Hoda Kotb leaves Today (boo!) after 18 years. “I realized that at 60, it was time for me to turn the page and try something new,” she told the audience on Sept. 26. “I remember standing outside and looking at this wonderful group of people with these beautiful signs, and I thought: This is what the crest of a wave feels like to me. And I thought, It can't get better, and I decided this is the right time for me to move on.” Kotb has been with NBC for 26 years, after starting her career as a reporter for Date line. Kotb said she will stay on as host until the end of the year. Through tears, she joked that she will “stay in the NBC family.” What that will look like is not yet known, but they should just give her a sitcom.

Kotb is currently co-host Today with Savannah Guthrie; they are the first all-female co-host team in the show's history. Kotb was also a pioneer of the Today's fourth hour, technically as a separate program: In 2007, she became the first anchor of the new 10 a.m. slot before co-hosting that time slot with Kathie Lee Gifford from 2008 to 2019. Jenna Bush Hager joined Kotb in 2019, and they remain co-hosts to this day. Yes, that means NBC will either have to find someone to take over both of Kotb's co-host jobs, or two new people. A successor hasn't been named yet, but maybe she and Adams can just swap jobs.