Hoda Kotb Replaces Matt Lauer at Today Show

On the morning of November 29th, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb fought back tears while announcing to the world that Matt Lauer, one of their longest reigned co-anchors who had just celebrated his 20th year with the company, had been terminated due to sexual misconduct allegations from a previous co-worker.

Photo: Andres Jasso on Unsplash

Lauer was the face of the Today show for years, and after Kotb filled in for him for just over a month, she was named the new co-anchor alongside Guthrie on Tuesday, January 2nd.

The decision to have two female co-anchors can be seen as a brave move by NBC, breaking the stereotype that there must be a male and female co-anchor pair. This stereotype has been the norm for this show since 1974, when they hired their first female co-anchor for their show, Barbara Walters.

Shortly after this announcement, People Magazine released their exclusive interview with the new co-anchor pair where Guthrie stated that they are both grateful to NBC for not having an “old fashioned notion about what should be.” She thought NBC “looked at it and said, ‘why would you change this? This is working, it feels good.'”

We want to know your opinion on this change in the Today Show. In 2018, should we really be this surprised that we can have two women co-anchoring a morning tv show? Do you think that people are actually surprised that this is being depicted as a jaw-dropping moment? Why can’t it be two women versus a man and a woman?