The TV season started this week, and so did the network TV anchor carousel.
Hoda Kotb told NBC viewers she’s leaving the Today show in early 2025, which means the network has two openings. NBC will need a co-anchor with Savannah Guthrie for its signature 7-9 a.m. show, plus someone for the fourth hour, Today with Hoda & Jenna, the 10 a.m. talk show Kotb co-hosts with Jenna Bush Hager.
Kotb, who joined NBC News in April 1998 as a Dateline NBC correspondent, made her announcement Thursday morning, two days after CBS cut loose Jeff Glor, co-host on CBS Saturday Morning and former CBS Evening News anchor.
And speaking of the CBS Evening News: Norah O’Donnell said in July she’s leaving her anchor and managing editor duties after five years later this year. She replaced Glor, 49, as main anchor in 2019 after co-hosting CBS Mornings. O’Donnell, 50, will report for 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, prime-time specials and other platforms.
And speaking of CBS Mornings: CBS follows NBC and ABC in expanding its morning news franchise by adding a third hour (9-10 a.m.) on Monday for Gayle King, Tony Dokoupil and Nate Burleson. But not here.
WKRC-TV plans to stick with its local Good Morning Cincinnati 9 a.m. show with Sheila Gray, Bob Herzog and Aleah Hordges.
Glor, who joined CBS in 2007, anchored the Evening News after Scott Pelley from 2017 to 2019. He was among the “hundreds of employees” who lost their jobs Tuesday as Paramount Global “hopes to save approximately $500 million in costs ahead of a merger with Skydance by laying off 15% of the company’s U.S.-based employees,” according to People magazine. Also gone are veteran consumer reporter Anna Werner, environmental reporter Ben Tracy and reporter Roxana Saberi, a Chicago-based correspondent who previously worked in the London bureau.
Kotb was promoted to Today co-anchor when longtime host Matt Lauer was fired in 2017 for inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace. She began thinking about her future after turning 60 Aug. 9.
"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 this beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous (birthday) 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 told viewers.
Daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, also were a big factor in her decision. “Obviously I had my kiddoes late in life, and I was thinking that they deserved a bigger piece of my time pie that I have,” she said.
Variety’s Brian Steinberg writes that it’s a “smart moment” for Kotb to leave as networks struggle with declining ratings and revenues.
“The morning anchors on the broadcast networks are among some of the most highly paid in the TV news business, but the economics of A.M. TV are not what they once were. As viewers leave traditional TV for digital platforms, whether they be streaming content, A.M. newsletters, or early-morning efforts aimed at niche audiences, those top-of-the-market salaries are likely to come under new scrutiny,” he says.
“All of the big morning programs will be forced to consider issues of succession in coming years, well aware that the flow of money that once fueled the format is narrowing. At ABC, it is understood that some contracts of GMA hosts are likely to come up for renewal over the next 12 to 18 months. CBS may have kicked the issue down the line by negotiating a new contract with CBS Mornings co-anchor Gayle King, but even that will not negate the work of developing potential replacements for the anchor, who is expected to turn 70 in coming months.”
