Today with Jenna and Friends will return on Jan. 13 with a rotation of celebrity co-hosts until a permanent replacement for Hoda Kotb is found.
Kotb will film her final episode of Today this week after nearly 18 years on the show. She announced her departure last September in a heartfelt letter to the cast and crew, and now a lineup of guest hosts will fill in during her exit.
Among the famous faces filling in for Kotb beginning on Jan. 13 include
Taraji P. Henson, Keke Palmer, and Eva Longoria, People reports.“It’s going to be our month of wonder women,” Jenna Bush Hager said during Monday’s broadcast.
“You know what that says? Heavy hitter, home run, wow,” Hoda added. “This is a big week.”
Bush Hager shared her excitement about the three superstar women who will kick off the new guest co-hosting lineup and thanked Kotb for helping make the goal a reality.
“We love these women, we’ve said we love these women,” Bush Hager said of her lineup of celebrity guest hosts. “I feel like Hoda helped me manifest this. Nobody will ever fill this chair, but the three of them sure can try.”
Henson, Palmer, and Longoria are no strangers to the Today show. Each powerhouse woman has made multiple guest appearances to discuss their newest projects and business endeavors.
Along with the new lineup of celebrity guest hosts, the show also has a new theme song, which Kotb approved.
“I was picturing you and how proud I’m going to be of you, walking right here from that wall to this desk with that song,” Hoda told Bush Hager. “It’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be amazing.”
Meanwhile, Kotb will focus more on her family and home life. She’ll also contribute to the NBC family in a smaller role by hosting specials and the Making Space podcast.
“It’ll involve doing some specials, doing the podcast, and doing maybe the Olympics, stuff like that,” she told People last October. “It’ll be like those kinds of things. So it’ll be specials and all those things. And I think every month or so, I’ll come back on the Today
show and do a little something in this space, which I think will be fun.”RELATED CONTENT: Nick Cannon Reflects On Lupus Journey, Calling Himself The ‘Black Tony Stark’