TODAY gives news celebrity Hoda Kotb a royal ‘ta ta’

Buckle up. It’s going to be a wild ride this week as the NBC television network is saying “fare-thee-well” to its morning show co-host who became America’s darling – Hoda Kotb.

She officially vacates her chair as co-anchor of TODAY on Jan. 10, leaving a big hole in the heart of legions of loyal viewers who have embraced Hoda Kotb for her intelligence, personality and charm as well as her caring and loving nature.

Hoda began her co-hosting partnership at NBC’s morning news desk with Savannah Guthrie on Jan. 2, 2018. Together, they have rocked it for six solid years, building market share and closing the gap on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” the front runner among the network morning shows.

(Starting Jan. 13, Craig Melvin moves up from the third chair at TODAY to co-host with Savannah.)

Network executives are calling this week’s send-off a “Hoda bration,” and you can bet, there won’t be a dry eye in the studio when the final curtain falls, after the accolades come rolling in from the morning team, headlined by veteran weather forecaster Al Roker (shown below) and featuring Dylan Dreyer, Sheinelle Jones, Carson Daly, Jenna Bush Hager, Peter Alexander, Laura Jarrett, Willie Geist and all the rest of the gang.

Hoda announced in late September 2024, having turned 60 years of age, that it was time to step out of the spotlight and spend more time with her two adopted daughters – Haley Joy and Hope Catherine. “I want to be able to walk my kids to elementary school, with a cup of coffee,” she said.

Hoda assured her fans that she intends to remain part of the NBC family, “repotting herself” into a role yet to be defined.

 

Hoda Kotb was born on Aug. 9, 1964, in Norman, Okla. Her parents, Abdel and Sami Kotb, had immigrated from Cairo, Egypt, in 1960 to study at the University of Oklahoma. Hoda, along with her older sister Hala and younger brother Adel were raised in an English-speaking household, first in Morgantown, W.Va., and then in Alexandria, Va.

Her father was a fossil energy specialist, and her mother worked at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Hoda followed her sister to enroll at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg and earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism in 1986. Landing that first television news job was an adventure, to say the least. Hoda tells the story:

“I had a job interview in Richmond, Va., in 1987.” She bought a new business suit, poofed out her hair and borrowed her mother’s car. “One interview, I so ignorantly assumed, would be all it would take to get hired as a television news reporter.” The news director viewed a portion of her 20-minute videotape and said she was too green and wasn’t ready for Richmond. Get some experience and come back in a few years.

“It had not dawned on me that I was not going to be hired,” Hoda said. “As I was leaving, the guy said, ‘I have a buddy in Roanoke (Va.) who will hire you. Drive there tonight and you’ll catch him.’ So I drove to Roanoke that night, and I met the news director there, and he said, ‘I’m sorry. but you’re not ready for Roanoke.’”

“I thought, ‘Who in the hell is not ready for Roanoke?’ Apparently me. As I was leaving, he said, ‘I’ve got a buddy who is hiring in Memphis (Tenn.), but you’ve got to catch him in the morning. So, I drove across Tennessee. I met that news director the next morning and he put my tape in and said, ‘No.’”

Hoda interviewed at more local TV stations. “All of Alabama rejected me” – from Birmingham to Dothan – as did every station located in the Florida panhandle. In total, 27 news directors turned her down.

 

“I turned the car around and headed north back toward Virginia. And then, somewhere in Mississippi, I took a wrong turn. GPS systems and cell phones did not exist; I was officially lost,” she said.

“As I drove around looking for a way to get back on track, I noticed a billboard for WXVT featuring the CBS eye. The station was in Greenville, a TV market I hadn’t considered. I drove to Greenville, digging deep for one last shred of hope.”

(Greenville, located in northwest Mississippi on the Mississippi River near Arkansas, ranks 195th in size among the 210 U.S. TV markets, reaching about 60,000 households.)

“I go in there. There’s this little short guy. His name is Stan Sandroni. He said: ‘Hey, how are you doing? I’m Stan Sandroni. I’m the News Director. I was Sports Director yesterday and got promoted.” What’s your name?’”

“I’m Hoda. He said: ‘Oh good, come on in, Hilda. Let’s go look at that tape. At the very end, he says, ‘Hilda, I like what I see.’” He hired her on the spot as a news reporter. She cried.

Stan Sandroni

Hoda would later say the highway billboard was a “sign from God” (with a Godwink in the form of the station’s callsign ending in “VT”…just meant for the Hokie alumna).

 

“Twenty-seven people thought I was terrible, and one didn’t,” Hoda said. “They say you can be the sweetest orange in the bunch, but some people just don’t like oranges, so you have to go until you find someone who fits with you. I think that was my important take-away, and thanks to Stan for what he did for me.”

One day at WXVT, Hoda said she was “in the newsroom working really hard on a story about how Girl Scouts need more leaders, breaking news. I remember Stan busted in, and asks: ‘OK, who has a blazer?’ A jacket. Who has a jacket?’”

“I replied that I have a jacket. It’s hanging on the hanger. ‘Oh good,’ Stan said, ‘you need to anchor the news, because Anne Martin is sick.’”

“Anne Martin was like Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, Oprah all rolled up into one in Greenville. That was her thing. She was out, and it was a big deal. Oh, my gosh. This is my big break. I can do this,” Hoda said.

“I looked right at the camera, and I said, ‘Good evening, I’m Anne Martin.’ Did I just say I’m Anne Martin? I don’t even know my own name to start the news that I’m supposed to be delivering?” The flubs just kept on coming, she said, like a runaway toboggan sliding down a snow-packed hill.

“When the 30-miute nightmare was over, the floor director said, ‘OK. Nice try.’ He took the microphone off to shake off the cooties.”

“The next morning, Stan said: ‘Well, I seen what you did. It was bad, but Anne’s sick again, so why don’t you try one more time.’ He gave me another go. That’s the lesson. It’s not how many times you fall, because you’re going to fall a gazillion times. Everyone notices the recovery.”

“Always bring a jacket to work.”

 

 

Hoda Kotb transitioned from ‘hard news’ to the softer side

Along her journey to “stardom” in the television news and entertainment business, Hoda Kotb served for a time as a reporter at ABC affiliate WQAD in Moline, Ill., prior to becoming a weekend anchor and reporter at CBS affiliate WINK in Fort Myers, Fla. From there, she moved on to serve several years as an anchor and reporter for CBS affiliate WWL in New Orleans.

 

She was recruited by NBC Studios in New York City in 1998 as a correspondent for Dateline NBC and went on to cover some of the most important domestic and international news events of the time, including the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I was fortunate enough to get to cover a lot of different things. They sent me to Baghdad after the statue fell in Iraq and to the West Bank in Gaza. I got to cover the globe. It was fascinating,” Hoda said.

“I like covering hard news. I really do, but I think sometimes your heart gets hard, too.”

While Hoda was a regular on the TODAY news desk, she was offered a co-hosting slot on a new “fourth hour” show in September 2007, working with Ann Curry and Natalie Morales to informally talk about current affairs and other lighter fare.

 

Viewers responded favorably, but when NBC brought in veteran talk show host Kathie Lee Gifford in March 2008 to succeed Ann and Natalie, the pairing of Kathie Lee and Hoda “proved to be momentous.”

Hoda wrote in her memoir. “Kathie Lee brought exactly what our hour needed. We were all in awe of her ability to let it fly.”

An NBC spokesperson wrote: “For 11 years, Hoda and Kathie Lee entertained TODAY viewers with their lively conversations, laugh-out-loud moments, vulnerable revelations (such as Hoda’s battle to survive breast cancer) and sweet friendship.”

 

Even after Hoda was promoted into the TODAY co-hosting role with Savannah Guthrie in 2018, she remained committed to doing the “fourth hour” segment with Kathie Lee with gusto.

 Hoda said that she “was transfixed” by Kathie Lee from the get-go. “I don’t know if you’ve ever had that chemistry where you connect with someone like that. It was a feeling I’d never had before – that kind of intensity.”

When Kathie Lee stepped down in 2019 to pursue her interests in directing and producing film and television projects, NBC turned to Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of former President George W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush, as Hoda’s new co-host at the 10 a.m. hour.

Jenna had joined NBC in 2009 as a contributor and correspondent, so she was a familiar face and knew the ropes. Hoda and Jenna quickly bonded and exhibited a unique brand of camaraderie.

(Starting Jan. 13, TODAY’s “fourth hour” will be labeled as “Jenna & Friends,” featuring a revolving cast of guest co-hosts until a permanent co-host is named.)

 

Some of Hoda Kotb’s finest work has been associated with NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics, including the games hosted in London, England, in 2012 and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2016.

 

One colleague commented: “I can’t think of a bigger fan of Team USA than Hoda. A cheerleader for all the athletes, she became especially close with the U.S. women’s gymnastics team during the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.”

Always on the edge of her seat during the competitions, Hoda “helped” the U.S. squad bring home the gold. She was dubbed the team’s “Olympic Momma” by star gymnast Simone Biles.

 

Of all the tributes planned during “Hoda bration,” I hope TODAY reaches out to Hoda’s Delta Delta Delta sorority sisters from Virginia Tech to expand on the origin of “the Ho-dini.”

With so many bases to cover, places to go, people to see and obligations to fulfill – even beginning in college – “Hoda perfected a technique whereby she would arrive at a party, do a quick circle and then sneak out before anybody can even witness it.” Then, Hoda would be on to the next venue…and the next.

It’s called “the Ho-dini” as a tribute to Harry Houdini, the Hungarian-American escapologist and vaudeville performer.