'Today' Co-Anchor Hoda Kotb Announces Surprising Decision On Future

TODAY co-anchor Hoda Kotb announced her decision to step down in 2025 during the show's live broadcast Thursday (September 26) morning.

"I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new," Kotb said. "I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, and I thought, 'This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.' And I thought it can't get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on."

Kotb said her intention to spend more time with her daughters, Haley , 7, and Hope , 5, played a major role in her decision.

"Obviously I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have," she said. "I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.

"And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world."

Kotb said she plans to continue her TODAY co-anchor role through January 1, 2025. The veteran journalist initially joined TODAY in 2008 as the fourth hour co-host and was named full-time co-anchor alongside Savannah Guthrie in 2018, becoming the long-running morning news program's first all-female anchor team.

Guthrie, who was visibly emotional during her colleague's announcement, said the TODAY team doesn't "want to imagine this place without you" and praised Kotb for her "guts. " Kotb initially joined NBC News as a Dateline correspondent in 1998 before joining TODAY as the show's fourth hour co-host alongside Kathie Lee Gifford in 2007.