On Sept. 26, Kotb revealed her plans to walk away from her role as co-anchor after 17 years in an emotional moment. She sat on a couch alongside her colleagues Al Roker, Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie, Sheinelle Jones and her co-anchor Jenna Bush Hager and shared the news through tears as Guthrie, 52, and Bush Hager reassured her.
The news was first announced in a letter to the staff of the NBC morning show. “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,” she wrote.
“My broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie. I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited,” she continued.
While no replacement has been named since the longtime Today co-anchor confirmed her departure from the daily news show, there are a few broadcasters, correspondents and podcast hosts that could be up for the job. Check out the possible contenders for the coveted position below.
Craig Melvin
Melvin — a two time Emmy Award winner — began on Today in 2018 when he was promoted to a weekday news anchor after working on MSNBC and NBC News since 2011. The journalist currently cohosts the 3rd Hour of Today alongside Roker, Jones and Dylan Dreyer.
In August, Melvin told PEOPLE of what it was like joining the morning show and opened up about his gratitude for Roker and how warm and inviting he had been when he joined the fold.
“I was new to the show and The Today Show is a very, it’s a delicate ecosystem. It’s been around for more than 70 years. It’s an American Institution,” Melvin, 45, said. “The inner circle is tight and guarded. They had invited me into the inner circle, and he was the first one to welcome me with open arms.”
Willie Geist
After years of hosting Morning Joe and substituting for anchors on Today, Geist became a permanent addition to the morning show in 2012. In 2016, the journalist was named the solo-host of Sunday TODAY where he conversationally covers the day’s news alongside in-depth profiles on what is shaping our culture.
In his “Sunday Sitdowns,” Geist chats with some of the biggest names in Hollywood to learn the stories behind their success. The guest list includes John Krasinski, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling, Kelly Clarkson, Chadwick Boseman and Melissa McCarthy, to name a few.
In a conversation with PEOPLE in July 2023, Geist confessed that he loves to impress his children with his celebrity guests.
“I’m definitely pushing 50 at this point, so when somebody who is on the younger end of celebrities come in, I do a gut check with my kids,” Geist told PEOPLE of his two kids, George and Lucie. “They said I had to interview Machine Gun Kelly, which turned out to be one of the best experiences we’ve had on the show, challenging and fun.
Sheinelle Jones
Jones joined the morning program in 2014 as a part of Weekend Today before she was named a cohost on the 3rd Hour of Today in 2019.
At the time, Jones opened up to PEOPLE about what it was like to work with her fellow cohosts, Roker, Melvin and Dreyer and the sense of ease she felt with working with her fellow news veterans.
“It’s almost in the middle before you get to the talk shows and in the middle of the newscast — it’s kind of a merge of both,” she explained in a July 2019 interview when the team celebrated the six-month work anniversary of their new series. “The beautiful thing about is that it’s authentic. It’s friends sitting around the table and people say on social media that they feel like them with their friends just having a conversation.”
Katy Tur
Tur is a broadcast correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, where she has hosted Katy Tur Reports since 2021 at the latter. Over the course of her history at the network, the journalist has frequently made appearances on Early Today, Today and Meet the Press.
A committed journalist, Tur previously opened up about how she’s been fighting misinformation and worked to educate her audience without influencing them as a broadcaster and reporter.
“When you’re a journalist, not everyone’s gonna love you. And it’s not your job to be loved,” she told InStyle in April. “It’s uncomfortable. And, of course, everyone wants to be liked. And I really want people to watch the show.”
She continued, “But I want them to walk away thinking that I’ve been fair and that I’ve informed them; given them enough information so that when they make decisions in their lives, they’re doing so with the best foundation that they can have.”
Tom Llamas
Llamas, is the host of the eponymous Top Story with Tom Llamas on NBC News NOW since 2021 and has frequently filled in for other Today hosts on the morning show. The journalists has won multiple Emmy Awards for his reporting, and he was notably a central figure in NBC News Now’s 2022 election coverage.
While speaking to PEOPLE in November 2022, the broadcaster, opened up about the importance of amplifying Latin voices and coverage in news. On his titular news show, Llamas has a segment titled “The Americas” that highlights current events in Latin America.
“As a Cuban American growing up in Miami, my family would watch the news in English but also Spanish to get news out of Latin America,” he explained. “I always thought it was strange that we had to do this — why wouldn’t the English language news cover our neighbors to the south, the place where one of the fastest growing groups of Americans originate from?”
He continued, “As anchor and managing editor of Top Story, I have a real responsibility to help select the stories we cover. I feel it’s my duty to cover Latin America. Not because I’m Hispanic, but because I believe a well-informed country is a stronger country.”
Stephanie Ruhle
Ruhle is NBC News’ senior business analyst and hosts MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephane Ruhle and has been since 2022. She is also a contributor on Today. Prior to her role as anchor, she was a managing editor and news anchor at Bloomberg.
In a conversation with PEOPLE in June 2019, Ruhle opened up about her unique background in news and how she was able to transition from her high powering banking job to a media position. Now that she’s found her footing, the journalist confessed she felt happier than ever.
“I didn’t expect this,” Ruhle admitted. “The best part about getting older is I’m actually happier as a 43-year-old than I was a 33-year-old and a 23-year-old because I’m trying to be somebody else and fit in somewhere that I don’t.”
Laura Jarrett
Jarrett has been a co-anchor for Saturday Today since 2023.
While speaking with PEOPLE about the role last September, the mom of two, 39, said she had been thrilled by the “whirlwind” year in her life.
In summer 2023, the mom of two welcomed her daughter, June Tahay, just months before joining the network in January as NBC News’ Senior Legal Correspondent. Between the “busy news cycle” and raising her two kids — daughter June, 13, months, and son James, 4 — Jarrett is looking forward to a “totally different change of pace on Saturdays.”
“I’m so excited that I get to work with Peter Alexander, and we can have fun and have conversations. I’m excited for them to get to know my family,” she said at the time. “I’m excited for the audience to get to know that side of me which is different than what they’ve seen me before, covering murder trials and impeachments and indictments.”
Ana Cabrera
Before beginning as the anchor for the 10 a.m. hour of MSNBC Reports in 2023, Cabrera was an anchor for CNN Newsroom. After nine years with the news network, Cabrera confirmed she would be leaving CNN in 2022 with a statement shared with Variety at the time.
“My heart is full of gratitude for the incredible opportunities I’ve had at CNN to serve our viewers and to work alongside extraordinary journalists,” she told the outlet. “But after nearly a decade at CNN, I’m making the personal decision to explore a new professional chapter. Time to embrace new challenges and opportunities.”
Alex Cooper
While Cooper doesn’t have a formal background in news, she is the name behind one of the most successful podcasts to date: Call Her Daddy.
Self-titled the “Founding Father,” Cooper has taken the podcast in a direction that’s evolved tremendously since its release in 2018. Originally synonymous with its sex-heavy topics in what was branded “female locker-room talk,” her podcast now puts “a modern twist on feminism” in each episode that airs, according to marketing materials.
