Three powerhouse women are stepping into Hoda Kotb’s shoes after the longtime talk show host’s upcoming exit from the Today show. Hoda’s Today With Hoda & Jenna co-host, Jenna Bush Hager, announced the first three celebrity guests who will be joining her in the morning show’s fourth hour beginning on January 13.
Taraji P. Henson, Eva Longoria, and Keke Palmer are kicking off the rotation, Bush Hager confirmed on Monday, January 6. “It’s going to be our month of wonder women,” she told Today viewers of the newly-branded Today With Jenna & Friends. Kotb shared her approval, adding, “You know what that says? Heavy hitter. Home run. Wow. This is a big week.”
Henson will be by Bush Hager’s side for the January 13 show, followed by Longoria and Palmer later that week. Some of the rotating replacements will stay on as co-hosts for a week at a time, while others may only stick around for a day or two.
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Kotb announced in September that she would be leaving Today, which she’s been hosting alongside Savannah Guthrie since 2018. She’s been with NBC News since 1998 and first came to Today as the fourth hour co-host in 2007. In November, NBC announced that Craig Melvin will be Guthrie’s new co-host, while Bush Hager will be joined by a rotation of celebrity guests until a permanent replacement is found.
However, there’s no rush to find someone following Kotb’s final show on Friday, January 10. “Chill out. I feel like our audience deserves the time to get to know a ton of different people, a ton of different backgrounds,” she told Variety in an interview published on Monday, January 6. “We’re hoping to pull up the chairs to all different types of people. I think there will be some surprises for sure. And so, it’s like, when we know, I think we’ll know.”
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Talia Parkinson-Jones, the executive producer of Today With Jenna & Friends, added, “We’re in this new version of the show and it’s really Jenna’s dating. We get a chance to meet different people, and we’ll fall in love one day, but until then we’re just having a really good time.”
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