Craig Melvin will succeed Hoda Kotb as the anchor of NBC's flagship morning show Today. The announcement, made on November 14, ends months of anticipation about who would fill the veteran anchor's seat.
Veteran host Craig will take up the leading role alongside Savannah Guthrie after Hoda leaves on January 10, filling her shoes from January 13. As the news broke on the show, the 60-year-old host reacted with nothing but kind words for her co-star.
Hoda gushed that Craig was "literally made for this job," telling him: "You have all the things this job needs."
"You are the right person for it," she added. Craig responded with equal reverence that Hoda had "saved" the show.
The huge news was announced with the likes of Sheinelle Jones, Carson Daly and Jenna Bush Hager joining for the happy news.
Savannah told the New York Times that she and Craig Melvin toasted his appointment while attending Taylor Swift's Eras Tour gig in Miami with their families last month. She promised that the transition would be "seamless."
Hoda's decision to leave
It feels like only yesterday that Hoda announced on September 26 she would be stepping down from her role as beloved anchor of the flagship show.
Speaking to her fellow co-hosts, Hoda explained her decision centered around her daughters, Hope and Haley.
© NBC"I just turned 60, and it was such a monumental moment for me when I turned 60 years old, because I started thinking about that decade like, what does that decade mean? What does it hold? What's it going to have for me? And I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60 and to try something new," she told her co-hosts.
© NBC"I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of the time pie that I have," she added. "I feel like we only have a finite amount of time."
Hoda has been host of Today since 2018, but she's been a part of the team for 17 years. Craig became a news anchor for Today in 2019, as well as a co-host of Today Third Hour, before being made a permanent member of the cast in January 2019.
