Craig Melvin will replace Hoda Kotb on NBC’s Today when she leaves the program early next year, the cast announced on Thursday’s episode.
The move launches one of the program’s staples into one of two lead anchor chairs during the show’s prime 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. hours. Kotb said in September she would leave the show next year to spend more time with her family—reportedly after the network planned to cut her pay.
“I am beyond excited and grateful,” Melvin told his couch of co-hosts on Thursday. He relayed conversations he had with his family about the role, noting their support for a position with a cumbersome schedule of peculiar hours and little sleep.
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“I have enjoyed just a lifetime of blessings, and this is the latest in a long line of blessings,” Melvin said.
Melvin has been a Today anchor since 2018 and previously hosted a daily MSNBC show, which he left in 2022 to focus on the morning show.
Kotb said on Thursday she would exit the program with a party on Jan. 10, opting not to stick through the inauguration. NBC did not announce plans to replace Kotb during the show’s 10 a.m. hour, which will be tentatively titled Today with Jenna and Friends and feature a rotating cast of characters, according to Variety.
Melvin on Thursday also thanked the Today staff, calling them “the best team in television.” He later announced he would remain an anchor of the show’s third hour, which he co-hosts alongside Al Roker, Sheinelle Jones, and Dylan Dreyer.
Kotb sang Melvin’s praises, saying he was “made for this job.”
“You have all the things that this job needs,” Kotb said. “You’re the right person for it. We’re all saying it.”
Roker, Zooming in, said he “knew this day would come” for Melvin, and praised his bona fides as both a journalist and a dad. “I am so proud and so happy for you right now,” Roker said.
Co-host Savannah Guthrie described him as “talented, wonderful, hard-working, [and] most worthy of this” as she announced the news, saying the larger Today staff broke out in applause once they learned about his promotion.
“This is one of the most popular decisions NBC News has ever made,” she said.
It appeared so, as the crowd assembled on the Today plaza showered Melvin with cheers and hugs to congratulate him after the cast announced the news.
