Why Has Finding Hoda Kotb’s TODAY Show Replacement Been A SHOCKINGLY DIFFICULT Quest? Jenna Bush Hager Finally REVEALS The Hidden Reason That Everyone Is DYING To Uncover
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager worked together for more than five years
Jenna Bush Hager has shared some insight into her new co-star on the Today Show after fellow presenter Hoda Kotb stepped away from the program in January.

At the Read With Jenna Book Festival she told People that they were “still searching” for Kotb’s replacement. She explained: “We definitely want somebody permanent at some point just because that’s our show, and I think the Today Show is such a family.”

 

Bush Hager added: “So to have somebody sit in that seat means a lot to all of us … I think we’ve all just been kind of living day by day and we don’t have any developments yet, but we will.”

 

Kotb shared the news of her departure in September last year, and her last show was aired in January.

Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager

Kotb said Bush Hager had been “crushing it” since she left the show
She said at the time that celebrating a milestone birthday helped her make the decision.

“So I was doing the math, and I realized that I had spent 26 years at NBC, and I just turned 60,” Kotb said.

She added: “I started thinking about that decade. Like, what’s that decade going to mean, what does it hold for me. And I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new.”

“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,” she continued.

 

Kotb returned to the show temporarily in an emotional reunion with Bush Hager on May 28th.

She said: “Can I just say before we start that Jenna Bush Hager, you have been literally crushing it since Jan. 12 or whenever my last day is.”

She continued on: “I’ve been watching you every single day. You’ve been incredible. You’ve been crushing it, crushing it, you really have been.”

Bush Hager told her friend: “You come back and it’s like we haven’t even spent the day apart. And I miss you, and I’m so happy for you.”

When tears came, Bush Hager said: “You know I haven’t cried in six months. I thought my heart was crusted over. I’m so glad to know I still have feelings.”