Today hosts Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin, Sheinelle Jones and more got together on Friday to briefly celebrate their co-star's recent promotion live on air.
Regular Today correspondent Joe Fryer joined the group as well as Al Roker and Carson Daly to host a segment on eating habits. However, his co-stars couldn't let him leave the desk without first sending him their sincere congratulations on his recent Today-related news.
Watch the sweet moment in which Savannah successfully changes the subject below.
As Savannah explained, Joe has been named Saturday Today's new feature anchor. He will be joining the team as they move into Studio 1A at the Rockefeller Plaza this September.
Co-anchoring the weekend show to which Joe will be contributing will be former CNN journalist Laura Jarrett who is currently working as NBC News' Senior Legal Correspondent, and current Weekend Today news anchor Peter Alexander.
Joe Fryer has been working as an anchor for NBC News' streaming service Morning News Now for almost two years, so he is no stranger to reporting in the limelight. In fact, the 46-year-old spent six years of his early broadcast journalism career in his home state of Minnesota, working for Minneapolis' KARE-TV.
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He has also held posts with KING-TV in Seattle, WTVF-TV in Nashville, WBAY-TV in Green Bay and WKYT-TV in Lexington. Joe graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism in 2000, and has won several journalism awards including an Emmy in 2014 for his work on a feature alongside the photojournalist Jeff Christian.
The proud Minnesotan joined NBC part-time in 2013, but soon was promoted to being a full-time correspondent that same year. In 2019 he shared his personal coming out story in an essay and TV story on Today, sharing his thoughts on how "visibility is vital," and his love for his partner of over ten years, Peter.
"I don't consider this essay — or the TV story that ran Thursday morning on TODAY — a 'coming out' story," Joe penned. He continued: "In my personal life, I walked out of that dark closet long ago.
"But most of our viewers probably don’t know my story. And if sharing my journey can make it a little easier for just one person to come out, or help just one parent accept their LGBTQ child, then it's well worth it. Because, what I know, is that this world could use a lot more love," the NBC News star concluded.
Joe's promotion was announced alongside that of Laura Jarrett in a statement from the Executive Vice President of Today and Lifestyle at NBC News Libby Leist. It read: "In her first months at NBC News, Laura has quickly made her mark with tireless reporting, sharp legal insight and powerful storytelling.
"Not only is she a terrific journalist, she's also a wonderful colleague. We can't wait to officially welcome her to Saturday TODAY." It went on to then say: "NBC News correspondent Joe Fryer has also been named Saturday Today Feature Anchor," plus it also announced that joining Laura, Peter and Joe in the Saturday studio would be meteorologist Angie Lassman.
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