Hoda Kotb, co-anchor on Today, announced on the NBC morning show September 26 that she will step down early next year. She said she made that decision after turning 60 last month. 

"I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new," an emotional Kotb said. 

Kotb and Savannah Guthrie have been co-anchors since 2018. Guthrie said the Today team doesn’t “want to imagine this place without you.” 

In a memo to colleagues, Kotb said her daughters, who are 7 and 5, and her mother, "need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie."

Kotb joined NBC News as a correspondent for Dateline in 1998 and joined the Today team in 2007, co-hosting the fourth hour alongside Kathie Lee Gifford. In addition to anchoring Today alongside Guthrie, Kotb co-hosts the fourth hour with Jenna Bush Hager.

Kotb temporarily stepped into the Today co-anchor role in November 2017 after Matt Lauer was fired. She took over co-anchor duties permanently at the start of 2018. 

Her staff memo said: “There’s plenty of time to talk about what’s ahead for all of us. But one thing I know for sure right now is this: everything’s going to be just fine. The Peacock’s feathers are never ruffled … no matter who comes or goes. ‘TODAY’ and its amazing people — all of you — never waver. You always weather change with grace.”

On the air, an emotional Guthrie said, “When you look around and see these tears, they are love. You are so loved.”

Kotb was inducted into the B+C Hall of Fame in 2022. 

Today’s Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager host NBC’s A Toast to 2022! on December 31. The two-hour telecast starts at 8 p.m. ET. Miley Cyrus, George Lopez, Dolly Parton and Kenan Thompson are among the celebs who will help the hosts celebrate. 

After A Toast to 2022!, Cyrus and Parton co-host Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party at 10:30 p.m. ET.

A Toast to 2022! comes from NBC News and Dateline NBC. The special will feature interviews with Samantha Bee, Mario Cantone, Akbar Gbajabiamila, Willie Geist, Lester Holt, Matt Iseman, Carson Kressley, Preacher Lawson, Tom Llamas, George Lopez, Howie Mandel, Josh Mankiewicz, Keith Morrison, Wendell Pierce, Colin Quinn, Amber Ruffin, Martha Stewart, Mike Tirico and Johnny Weir, among others.

David Corvo is the senior executive producer and Liz Cole is the executive producer. ■

It can be hard enough to digest the news of the world, be it COVID-19 or the war in Ukraine, when a news consumer wakes up in the morning. It is a heckuva lot harder to process it all and deliver it to morning TV viewers as they sip coffee and get the kids off to school. 

Speaking just before Russia invaded Ukraine, Hoda Kotb discussed witnessing world history from the front row.  “It’s been horrifying and saddening and awe-inspiring at the same time,” she said. “This is a moment in history like no other. Sometimes you just can’t believe this is the part of history you’re witnessing in your lifetime.”

The Today co-anchor is precisely where she wants to be at 7 a.m. each weekday, even if she never quite let herself dream about that scenario. “I get to do a job that was so far out of my mind, it wasn’t even in the dream,” Kotb said. 

Also: Welcome to the 30th Anniversary of the ‘B+C’ Hall of Fame

Kotb grew up in Morgantown, West Virginia, her parents coming to America from Egypt to attend college. She described “a kind of idyllic childhood” in a neighborhood where everyone looked out for each other. She played high school basketball, getting by on grit. “I played with heart and I loved it,” Kotb said. 

Took to TV Journalism

Her parents were “newsies,” Kotb said, always with the news on TV, and that was a factor in her studying broadcast journalism at Virginia Tech. 

“I fell in love with storytelling,” Kotb said. “I covered city council meetings, and it was, ‘Oh my god, this is amazing!’”

When it came time to find a job in local TV, Kotb drove her mother’s car all over Virginia, getting a no in each market, but also coming away with a suggestion about someone in a smaller market who might be looking for an entry-level reporter. “I never left a station without another one to go to,” Kotb said. 

She finally interviewed in Greenville, Mississippi. The WXVT news director was promoted from sport director the day before, and hired the woman he called “Hilda” after watching her “horrible” tape, she said. 

“He said, ‘We’ll pay you nothing and you’ll work all the time,’ ” she said. “I have never been more grateful in my life for a job.”

Kotb moved on to WQAD Moline, Illinois; then WINK Fort Myers, Florida; then WWL New Orleans. Kotb adored that city and job, and NBC called about a position at Dateline NBC in 1998. Neal Shapiro, CEO of The WNET Group, was a Dateline executive producer. He met Kotb in New Orleans. Some talent pops on camera more so than in person, he said. Kotb popped on camera — and was even warmer in person. 

“Delightful, charming, curious,” he said. “She had a lot of great qualities.”

Kotb started at Dateline, and when Shapiro was promoted to NBC News president in 2001, he put her on a range of NBC News programs. “Everywhere she went, Hoda impressed,” he said. “People saw in her what I saw.”

Kotb joined Kathie Lee Gifford as the co-host of Today’s fourth hour
in 2008, and moved up to Today co-anchor in 2018. 

Co-anchor and fellow 2022 Hall of Famer Savannah Guthrie said Kotb brings “intense smarts” and a lot of warmth. “She’s so funny and loving and warm, which everyone knows from the fourth hour, but may have missed the fact that she’s an incredibly smart and astute journalist,” she said. “She’s also a great writer and great communicator.”

Empathy Lessons

Being the child of immigrants has helped Kotb as a journalist. Her friends growing up would visit their grandmother in a neighboring state, while she hopped on a plane to Egypt to do so. “It made the world small,” she said. “You realize, people here are like us, and people there are like us. People all around are human beings.”

Kotb is up at 3:15 each weekday. To unwind, she plays with her kids, who are 5 and 3. She enjoys strumming the guitar — “Take Me Home, Country Roads” is a favorite — walking through Central Park and shooting hoops, never leaving the playground on a missed shot. 

The news can feel a bit overwhelming, but Kotb anticipates things eventually getting back to a more sedate state. 

“Nothing is a hurricane 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said. “Hurricanes come and go. We’ll hopefully get to a point where we get back to life, and we get back to other stories that lead our newscast.” ■

The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame -- the premier industry event paying tribute to the pioneers, innovators and stars of the electronic arts -- returns with a full, in-person live gala celebrating the event’s 30th anniversary. The Hall of Fame celebration will take place at New York’s Ziegfeld Ballroom on Thursday, April 14, 2022.

The new B+C Hall of Fame inductees join the ranks of more than 400 honorees previously recognized by Broadcasting+Cable magazine. The new Hall of Fame inductees (alphabetically) are:

Emily Barr, president & CEO, Graham Media Group.

Nomi Bergman, president, Advance/Newhouse Investment Partnership.

Brandon Burgess, former president & CEO, ION Media. 

Susanne Daniels, global head of original content, YouTube.

Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor and chief legal correspondent, TODAY & NBC News.

Hoda Kotb, co-anchor and co-host, TODAY & TODAY with Hoda & Jenna.

Pearlena Igbokwe, chairman, Universal Studio Group.

Leo MacCourtney, president, Katz Television Group.

Dan Mason, chairman emeritus, The Broadcasters Foundation of America, and past president and CEO, CBS Radio.

Steve Miron, chief executive officer, Advance/Newhouse Partnership.

Steven R. Swartz, president and CEO, Hearst.

Curtis Symonds, president, HBCU GO TV/Allen Media Group.

ESPN, Iconic Network. 

While the Hall of Fame previously has inducted iconic shows, ESPN is the first network to be admitted into the fold. “It’s a tremendous honor for ESPN to receive the first Iconic Network Award from The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame,” Jimmy Pitaro, chairman, ESPN and Sports Content, told B+C/Multichannel News. “When we launched in 1979, ESPN immediately created an indelible bond with sports fans by matching their passion. Thank you to the thousands of dedicated ESPN employees who, over four decades, have continued to create a non-stop immersive sports experience.”

“The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame has always been one of the entertainment industry’s signature events,” said Bill McGorry, chairman of the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame. “In a year like no other, we are beyond thrilled to be able to welcome back our community with a star studded live 30th Anniversary gala that will surely be a night to remember. With great anticipation, we look forward to celebrating together in April.”

“Each year we are completely awed by our Hall of Fame honorees and this class of 2021 raises the bar yet again,” B+C Editor-in-Chief Bill Gannon said. “This class is particularly noteworthy for the visionary and innovative leaders who have changed the industry both before and during the pandemic. The Hall of Fame is thrilled to add these exceptional individuals to the prestigious classes of honorees that have come before them.”

“Broadcasting+Cable’s Hall of Fame is one of the most important events in broadcasting,” Jim Thompson, president of Broadcasters Foundation of America, said. “Their generosity in donating a portion of the proceeds to support the mission of the Broadcasters Foundation of America is admirable, and we cannot thank them enough. Over the past 30 years, the Hall of Fame has contributed more than $700,000 to help our fellow broadcasters who have been hit by debilitating illness, accident, or disaster. We are grateful for the continued support of the Hall of Fame. With their help, we can continue to provide aid to our colleagues in desperate need.”

Since the event’s inception, a portion of the proceeds goes to the Broadcasters Foundation of America, a charitable organization that provides financial grants to those of our industry colleagues and their families who are in acute need due to critical illness or accident, advanced age, death of a spouse or other serious misfortune. In addition, the event benefits The Paley Center for Media, a non-profit organization leading the discussion on the social significance and advancement of television, radio and emerging platforms for the professional and media-interested public.

For sponsorship, table, ticket and advertising information, please contact Jessica Wolin at  jessica.wolin@futurenet.com or 212-685-4233.

For more information please visit the B+C Hall of Fame website.

Follow the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame at #BCHOF2021. ■

We stood near 66th Street at Central Park West in Manhattan, thousands of us, behind the police barricades, waiting. The first-anniversary NYC Women’s March crowd would reportedly hit 200,000, but many of us — too far away from the speeches, outcries, slogans and finally, the start of the marching — stood and waited for over two hours, patient and hopeful.

Then, finally, at the first real signs of restlessness on this unseasonably warm day: movement. It was slow at the beginning, like baby steps. The shouting got loudest as we passed cameras, then monitors, then Trump-branded hotels. The placard signs were winning: “Men of Quality Don’t Fear Equality,” “Girls With Dreams Become Women With Vision,” “Get Your Tiny Hands Off Mother Earth,” “The Fem-Pire Strikes Back,” and a personal favorite, “UGH Where Do I Even Start.” And then, after a turn at 59th Street and Columbus Circle, the crowd widened and we were off, moving quickly, walking 20 more blocks with a sense of exhausted relief and accomplishment, and a hope that it would contribute to positive change.

The pace of that day, in fact, seemed to mirror that of this current moment in the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. Last October wasn’t a week old when Harvey Weinstein turned from producer to pariah, and ever since, weekly revelations have drawn ire and more banishments in film and television — perhaps most notably on TV, once-invincible morning host Matt Lauer of Today. But real progress has proven slow, as patience battles restlessness.

Read More:Some On-the-Job Gender Training | With #MeToo, TV Hits the ‘Reset Button’

That pace is fine for history; social movements move slowly and broadly in a host of directions and take years, even decades, to unfold. What’s unique here and now is that this current women’s movement is playing out on the most relentlessly and constantly examined canvas in modern history; namely, the digital, multiplatform, obsessive 24-hour news cycle. And, as we’ve already witnessed, there’s no way to keep that impatient, ratings-hungry backdrop from reshaping what will be an historic, evolving narrative — especially given that the media itself is among the industries being examined.

The excessive punditry makes it difficult to parse what it all means going forward after a week that saw one woman’s intimately reported, aggressive dating encounter with Master of None star/co-creator Aziz Ansari balanced against Today, one of TV’s most popular shows, naming its first-ever female executive producer, Libby Leist. One thing’s for certain: It will be a challenge to make the right kind of continued progress while separating conversation from noise.

“The complexity of the topic itself is in part due to the fact that there’s never any pause in the cycle of reaction,” Isra Ali, clinical assistant professor in the department of media culture and communications at New York University, said. “There tends to be a trajectory of something reported, like with Aziz Ansari, and then immediate reaction online and then reactions of news reporting reacting not on just the event but also in reaction to the reaction. The question becomes, does it ever settle or is it just a continual cycle?”

A Maddening Pace
Also muddying the meaning in the movement are the competing narratives. One can argue that this current push for rights was born during the last presidential campaign and saw its first symbolic heights in the first Women’s March, with attendance that — White House reports aside — dwarfed the inauguration crowds. In the months since, the general goals have been about protecting reproductive rights and health care, putting more women in Congress and trying to climb back toward a balance of power lost when the electoral numbers tipped to Donald Trump.

But the goals widened in the months since the Weinstein revelations ripped the Band-Aid off the unattended wounds of Hollywood, leading to a re-examination of the American workplace and, in fact, culture itself. Questions of respect, disparity in pay and unfair hiring practices — matters that haven’t been “questions” for women for decades — received fresh consideration. And, thankfully, #MeToo, and its attendant call for an end to sexual assault, discrimination and harassment, saw a resurgence. What’s at play is how we as a culture define progress, and how one gets to it.

These questions now play out every moment in the media, courtesy of both news organizations and the social channels that have become bully pulpit forums. Revelations uncovered after months of dogged reporting share space with raw confessionals that go viral and are then fodder for mind-numbingly debated cable news topics.

So far, the change has come in individual gestures. Kevin Spacey, the Oscar and Emmy winner now regarded as a serial sexual predator based on multiple accusations, has lost his Netflix series House of Cards and was quite literally erased from the film All the Money in the World. Fellow bad actors Russell Simmons, Louis C.K., Lauer, CBS This Morning anchor Charlie Rose and others have each been professionally picked off; what remains is the development of some overall strategy that will make the content business, among others, adhere to ethical rules of sexuality and fairness.

“This moment has created this space for people to tell their stories but we’re only responding to these as individual stories rather than saying this is much bigger than that,” Ann Russo, professor of women and gender studies and director of the women’s center at DePaul University, said. “Without critical social analysis, this stays at this individual level versus what to do to change society. That’s what I’m wondering: Is this a moment or a movement?”

Progress Report
The disparity in the ways media has covered progress and hysteria were on display both at the Today show and in the coverage of Ansari. From that day in late November, when Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb announced Lauer’s dismissal from Today, the show has seemingly run a two-prong approach to the issue: execs keeping a wary eye on public reaction and the ratings of Guthrie and Kotb, and having the co-anchors report on Lauer with only the necessary probing, while offering general coverage of the state of sexual harassment.

The new arrangement worked: On Jan. 2, Kotb was named official co-anchor of one of the most powerful, popular shows on television. And in a nod to this new normal, longtime executive producer of the show, and Lauer favorite, Don Nash, announced his departure; he was replaced by Libby Leist, a senior producer on Today, now the first woman to hold this exalted place in the business. Ad revenue at the show fell in December 24% year-over-year, but viewers are pleased with the pairing.

How this will change the show, and the industry, or whether this becomes simply another individual story, remains to be seen.

“When people say, we need to get more women in power and office, that doesn’t necessarily change the culture or our underlying structure,” Russo said. “It could make a difference but it also depends on what the [Today] show itself allows for. Media depends on making money. They’re not going to allow a lot of critical analysis of pervasive sexual issues. Some of these moves are good but it’s about having a bigger commitment than these symbolic gestures, especially since those gestures might deflect people’s attention and make them think, ‘Oh, everything’s OK.’ ”

That raw feelings remain pervasive, and divisive, has been obvious, and nowhere more so than in the case of Ansari, and “Grace,” the woman whose graphic account of their aggressive sexual encounter remains a focal point of discussion. Ansari, in some circles, is now regarded as disingenuous and hypocritical, a seeming feminist who sported a Time’s Up button during the Golden Globes, and whose 2015 book is titled, Modern Romance: An Investigation.

Date With Destiny
Others, however, angrily suggest Grace’s story reads like date porn, detailing an encounter that could have been avoided — or, at least, not reported on with such vigor and, in some views, vengeance. Ansari is well-liked and respected, and the concern is that Netflix — much as NBC did — will wait out the public opinion, and then decide whether or not he deserves to be heaped in with the likes of Spacey and Lauer for what is acknowledged to be less of an offense.

What’s concerning, too, is the part the media is playing in moving this narrative forward, even influencing it. Sources on polar opposites of the cultural agenda — Fox News Channel on one hand, The New York Times and The Atlantic on the other — lined up to delegitimize what felt, to them, like an attempt by the writer of Grace’s story to undercut the entire women’s movement with the account.

Fox News’s Tucker Carlson wondered if the movement is now hurting whom it meant to help; Ashleigh Banfield on HLN argued that Grace had little more than a bad date that she’s now elevated into a weapon in the greater narrative. “The #MeToo movement has righted a lot of wrongs and … [you] chiseled away at that powerful movement with your public accusation,” she said.

Samantha Bee took on the issue on Full Frontal, offering a “#sorrynotsorry” rebuttal, saying, in part, “a lot of people are worried about Aziz [Ansari]’s career — which no one is trying to end because we know the difference between a rapist, a workplace harasser and an Aziz Ansari. That doesn’t mean we have to be happy about any of them.”

Ali suggested that beyond the bitter recrimination, the talk is good. “There are levels,” she said, referring to the acknowledged difference between Ansari and, say, Louis C.K. and Weinstein. “It’s good to see there is a scale; when people say the movement has made things very black and white, that’s actually not the case. … It may seem like a witch hunt with immediate negative consequences but I do think there’s room for a little bit more subtlety.”

It’s that attempt to make reasonable decisions about something as unreasonable as sexual discrimination that — once the media noise dies down — could ultimately shape this movement into something extraordinarily powerful. Swifter, more historic movement will come about, Russo said, if these reported events “become less of a spectacle and more something we’re concerned about.”

It’s an opinion voiced with stunning validity by Ann Curry, whose career as a Today co-anchor was arguably cut short in part due to Lauer’s influence. “We’re a long way from fixing the problem; it’s more than a conversation,” she told Stephen Colbert during a recent visit to The Late Show. “It’s about action. It’s about not just telling people they can’t do certain things, it’s about changing the dynamic and the power balance within companies so that women are not seen as people who can’t rise to the top. Once we figure that out, we might have a chance to figure [it all] out.”