Hoda Kotb just wants her 'Today' replacement to be themselves.
The 60-year-old journalist had anchored the NBC morning programme alongside Jenna Bush Hager since 2018 when she stepped down on Friday (10.01.25) and as a series of guests hosts take her place for now, she has revealed that she just wants whoever gets the full-time role to avoid "forcing" anything while on air.
She told E! News: "I would say to that person that they should be 100 percent themselves. They should not try and force or do anything other than be authentically, 1,000 percent who they are. If they want it so deep down, it will come.
"And what's going to work is not that one person’s super talented and another person is super talented—Jenna and whomever. Instead, it's whatever that space between is. Once you get magic, you know it from day one. You're like, ‘That's it. It's there.’ And from that day forward, it's off and running."
The TV star did warn that it is "hard work" because the job requires being authentic all the days that are spent on air but reassured the "lucky person" that they will be in for a once-in-lifetime experience.
She said: "Look, it's hard work because you got to be yourself on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday.
"It's not like, ‘I'll be funny today, but I'm in a bad mood today.’ You just got to bring it. Maybe you're not having the best day. So what? It's not about you today.
", I think all of those things will come together. Whoever that lucky person is, it's the job of a lifetime. It really is. There's nothing better than that job. Nothing."
