Hoda Kotb Tearfully Indicators Off as ‘At the moment’ Co-Anchor

Hoda Kotb is signing off from the At the moment present for the ultimate time.

On Friday, Jan. 10, the 60-year-old journalist mentioned goodbye to her anchor place on the NBC information program after 17 years.

“I am not even in a position to articulate it as a result of I am a large number many of the occasions, however I simply need to say thanks,” Kotb mentioned by means of tears after the daytime program ran a video tribute to her profession. “Carson [Daly], you are like the key sauce on this present, man. With out you the present doesn’t hum. Like, you will have the factor and also you introduced it. You deliver it day-after-day.”

The mother of two continued to shout out her co-anchors. “Al, you’re my first good friend right here, the primary individual I met,” she mentioned to Al Roker. “Once I acquired sick, you have been the primary individual that walked into the room and mentioned I used to be going to be okay.”

Then, Kotb turned her consideration to Savannah Guthrie, who she known as “my individual.”

“Who reveals up for everyone? This lady,” Kotb mentioned. “When your brother died, it was this lady. Once I was going by means of stuff with Hope, it was this lady. She’s within the room. She’s at all times within the room and I like you.”

She closed out by pumping up her alternative, Craig Melvin. “Craig, I imply, I am so pleased for you,” Kotb mentioned. “You earned this. You personal this. And are available Monday at 7:00 a.m., I’ll be useless asleep. However you are gonna be improbable. You are going to deliver it house! Craig, you are gonna be so good. You and Savannah are going to be magic.”

After that, Kotb’s co-anchors introduced out a slew of friends to ship her off, together with Maria Shriver and Simone Biles, who known as Kotb her “Olympic mother” and mentioned she hoped to see the TV star in Los Angeles for the 2028 video games.

“Hopefully we’re in L.A. collectively, no matter meaning,” Biles, 27, mentioned. “No matter meaning for the each of us.”

Kotb replied, “Simone, nonetheless you find yourself in L.A. and no matter you do, I’ll be there too with you. I like you.”

Kermit got here for Kotb’s final day, too, and sang “Rainbow Connection” for Kotb, her daughters Haley, 8, and Hope, 5, and her At the moment colleagues. Kotb mentioned she performed the music when she “rolled in” to work on her closing day.

“Hoda, you actually do make very day as lovely as a rainbow,” Kermit mentioned.

Afterwards, Kotb headed out to the At the moment Plaza for her closing goodbye.

“Can I simply say thanks actual fast?” Kotb mentioned. “Can I simply say thanks to each one who got here out right here? I learn your playing cards. I acquired your bracelets I acquired the scarves you crocheted. I learn the texts. I acquired all the things. So I simply need to say from the underside of my coronary heart, thanks for popping out, for being right here and for all the things you probably did.”

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Kotb introduced in September that she deliberate to depart her function at At the moment after almost twenty years.

“As I write this, my coronary heart is everywhere in the map,” the journalist wrote in a letter to workers of the NBC morning present, shared Thursday, Sept. 26. “I do know I’m making the proper choice, nevertheless it’s a painful one. And also you all are the explanation why. They are saying two issues may be proper on the similar time, and I’m feeling that so deeply proper now. I like you and it’s time for me to go away the present.”

Explaining her reasoning, Kotb added partly, “My broadcast profession has been past significant, a brand new decade of my life lies forward, and now my daughters and my mother want and deserve an even bigger slice of my time pie. I’ll miss you all desperately, however I’m prepared and excited.”

Nevertheless, the Making Area podcast host shared that she plans to stay a part of the workforce at NBC. In October, she informed PEOPLE that these specifics have been nonetheless “being formulated.”

“It will contain doing a little specials, doing the podcast and doing possibly the Olympics, stuff like that,” she mentioned on the time. “It will be like these sorts of issues. So it will be specials and all these issues. And I believe each month or so, I will come again on the At the moment present and perform a little one thing on this house, which I believe might be enjoyable.”

In a PEOPLE cowl story in October, Kotb opened up about leaving the At the moment present after experiencing a 12 months of private turmoil — together with her daughter Hope, 5, having a sudden medical disaster in Feb. 2023. (Kotb declined to share the particular ailment out of privateness considerations.)

After years of balancing work and being a mother to Hope and her large sister Haley, Kotb admitted it was time for a change. “There’s the guilt you carry as a result of you possibly can’t be 100% at work and 100% at house. One thing has to provide if you would like excellence. If you are going to be wonderful at work, one thing has to provide at house. And if you wish to be wonderful at house, I imply wonderful, and do all of the issues, one thing has to provide at work. It will possibly’t be equal,” she defined.

One other consider her choice was the private reflection that got here with celebrating her milestone sixtieth birthday in August.

“I’ve type of been considering, questioning, serious about what I wished this subsequent chunk of my life to appear to be as I turned 60,” she informed PEOPLE. “And I like journey, I like new beginnings. I am a dawn individual and never a sundown individual, and I used to be questioning, what does it appear to be for me?”

As for what’s subsequent for the longtime broadcaster, she teased a brand new mission that was in “its infancy.”

“It is an entire wellness scenario, and I acquired lit up by that simply from stuff I have been engaged on and doing on myself,” she informed PEOPLE. “I’ve realized to do a bunch of various issues with breath works and what not by means of pals, by means of Jenna [Bush Hager], by means of Maria [Shriver], by means of all these completely different individuals, and I have been loving it.”

The tv persona added she’s “nonetheless early on within the phases” of getting a “actually good wellness app collectively and do wellness retreats and issues like that.”

As Kotb bids farewell to the At the moment present, Melvin, 45, will step in as her alternative, starting on Monday, Jan. 13.

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Kotb celebrated the information of Melvin’s new function, telling him on-air, “You’re made for this job.”

“You’re actually made for this job. You’re that type of good,” she added. “You may have all of the issues that this job wants. You are the proper individual for it.”

The At the moment present airs weekdays on NBC starting at 7 a.m. ET.