‘TODAY’ host Hoda Kotb to be replaced by Craig Melvin

Craig Melvin will keep it in the NBC family when he replaces Hoda Kotb on the “TODAY” show early next year.
Kotb, 60, announced on the legacy morning show Thursday that as of Jan. 10, Melvin, 45, will move from co-anchoring the 9 a.m. hour to join Savannah Guthrie in co-anchoring the 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. block.
A “beyond excited and grateful” Melvin said the promotion is “the latest in a long line of blessings.”
His predecessor said Melvin, who’s been at NBC News nearly 14 years, was “literally made for this job” and “the right person for it.”
Guthrie called Melvin’s promotion “one of the most popular decisions NBC News has ever made,” noting their staff applauded upon learning of it.
News that Kotb will pass the torch to Melvin comes less than two months after the network veteran revealed in late September that she would be leaving “TODAY” after nearly two decades — including five spent as co-anchor.
“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” she said of her milestone birthday the month prior.
Though she told staffers she was “making the right decision,” Kotb acknowledged it was “a painful one” that would be ending “the longest professional love affair of my life.”
Melvin will debut in his new role on Monday, Jan. 13, following Kotb’s “party day” the Friday prior.
“We are beyond thrilled to have Craig step into the co-anchor chair,” Libby Leist, senior vice president of “TODAY,” wrote in a statement to staff Thursday of the “integral and beloved part of our family.
“From breaking news coverage in the field, to presidential interviews, to multiple Olympics and Super Bowls, Craig’s shown he has the talent and the range to cover all that we do here at ‘TODAY,’” said Leist. “And he does it without ever losing that Southern charm.”
Even in his new role, Melvin will continue to co-host the morning show’s third hour, alongside Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer and Sheinelle Jones.
Melvin’s wife, sportscaster Lindsay Czarniak, posted several Instagram Stories celebrating the “HUGE news.”