WATCH: Celebrate Hoda Kotb’s New ‘Today’ Job With These 3 Memorable On-Air Moments

By Sameer Rao Jan 02, 2018

The "Today" show announced this morning (January 2) that long-time NBC News correspondent and on-air personality Hoda Kotb officially ascended to the daily program’s co-anchor chair.

 

Deadline reports that Kotb moved into the co-anchor seat after nearly 20 years of working for NBC News. The Egyptian-American newscaster is the first person of Middle Eastern North African descent to helm the program. According to CBS News, she and co-anchor Savannah Guthrie are the only pair of female lead anchors in the show’s 65-year history.

Kotb has filled in as interim co-anchor since November, when NBC fired Matt Lauer for multiple allegations of sexual harassment. She spent nearly a decade co-hosting the fourth hour of "Today" with Kathie Lee Gifford. Kotb and Gifford endeared themselves to fans with their easygoing conversational style, which often involved freely drinking wine on air. Her NBC career began in 1998, when she worked as a correspondent for "Dateline."

Outside of "Today," Kotb also hosts "The Hoda Show" on Sirius XM and has written three books: the autobiographical “Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee," "Ten Years Later: Six People Who Faced Adversity and Transformed Their Lives" and “Where We Belong: Journeys That Show Us The Way."

The three "Today" clips below showcase some of Kotb’s most memorable moments on the show.

In this segment, Kotb swaps roles for a candid profile about her experience with new motherhood. This clip is one of several times during the last year when she let her colleagues and fans in on the emotional journey leading to the adoption of her daughter, Haley Joy:

Here, "Hollywood Medium" Tyler Henry helps Kotb explore unresolved emotions around the sudden death of her father during her college years. This clip showcases one of Kotb’s greatest interviewing skills—her willingness to be vulnerable with her interviewees, leaving room for deeper conversations:

And no look at Kotb’s career would be complete without some of the wine-aided hilarity that she and Gifford cook up nearly every morning. Here’s a compilation of moments from 2016: