After years of waiting for a promotion, Hoda Kotb finally asked NBC for the coveted “Today Show” fourth-hour host role – and got it – she told NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” on Sunday.
“Girl, I asked for it. I never asked for anything here. I was always working hard,” the now-retired host said.
Kotb added that she thought, “‘They’ll see me. I’m still here. They’re going to give me a raise,’” but, unfortunately, “It doesn’t work like that.” She served as host of the fourth hour of the show from 2007 to 2025 and as co-anchor from 2018 to 2025.
Stepping into the role on October 18, 2007, was “incredible,” she added. “To realize that it had an impact on women mattered. And another lady said to me, ‘My little girl now knows that when she turns on the television and looks for two people, a man doesn’t always have to be the one with the authority who’s bringing her the news. It can be women too, two women, in fact.’”
That “felt empowering, and amazing, and magical,” Kotb continued. “And also it was good journalism, and good television, and it just worked on a regular level. I mean, I never thought in my 50s that I would be sitting in that chair, doing that job. I mean, how could that be possible?”
“But now we’re showing that, women, it doesn’t matter how old you are because what’s inside you, the spirit part of you is there, and it’ll come out no matter.”
While her role has shifted, Kotb has been with the network for over 25 years, and she told Welker “my time at NBC livs in me.”
“You know, certain things you carry for the rest of your life. And I get to carry that. So for 26 years, I did similar things every single day. And one day, Kristen, in January, I woke up, and my alarm didn’t go off at 3:30. And I went downstairs to my office. And Haley ran down. And she looked at me. And she said at 5:00 a.m., she said, ‘You really are here.’”
The moment was impactful. “And I think in that tiny moment, I was like this decision was right on so many levels. And post-‘Today Show’, look, I’ve lived my life on one track. And I realize that when you switch chapters, you can be a beginner all over again.”
Kotb announced her decision to step down as host of the “Today Show” in September 2024. “As I write this, my heart is all over the map,” Kotb wrote in a memo to staff. “I know I’m making the right decision, but it’s a painful one. And you all are the reason why. They say two things can be right at the same time, and I’m feeling that so deeply right now. I love you and it’s time for me to leave the show.”
Watch the interview with Hoda Kotb in the video above.
