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Veteran NBC broadcast journalist Craig Melvin will replace departing TODAY show co-anchor Hoda Kotb in January.
“I am beyond excited and grateful,” Melvin said while appearing on the show Thursday (November 14) morning. “I’ve enjoyed just a lifetime of blessings and this is the latest in a long line of blessings.”
Melvin initially joined TODAY as an anchor in August 2018 before being named permanent co-host on the show's third hour alongside Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones and Dylan Dreyer five months later. Kotb, who confirmed that her final episode will be January 10, said Melvin was "literally made for this job" and had "all the things this job needs," telling him he's "the right person for it." The longtime anchor confirmed that her final day on TODAY would be considered a "party day."
Kotb announced her decision to step down in 2025 during the show's live broadcast on September 26.
"I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new," Kotb said. "I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, and I thought, 'This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.' And I thought it can't get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on."
Kotb said her intention to spend more time with her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, played a major role in her decision.
"Obviously I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have," she said. "I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.
"And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world."
Kotb initially joined TODAY in 2008 as the fourth hour co-host and was named full-time co-anchor alongside Savannah Guthrie in 2018, becoming the long-running morning news program's first all-female anchor team.