Hoda Kotb returned to Today on Monday, telling viewers that her extended absence was due to her three-year old daughter’s health issue. “My youngest Hope was in the ICU for a few days, in the hospital for a little more than a week,” Kotb said at the start of the broadcast. “I am so grateful she is home. She is back home. I was waiting for that day to come, and we are watching her closely. I am just so happy.”
Today co-host Hoda Kotb has been absent from the show due to a “family health matter that she has been dealing with,” co-host Craig Melvin said on the show on Wednesday. Kotb made her last live appearance on the show on Feb. 17.
There was a morning scramble Tuesday on NBC’s Today, but no cooking segment involved. The morning program had to move fast in replacing one of its co-hosts while on the air after it was discovered that Savannah Guthrie tested positive for COVID-19. Guthrie was forced to abruptly vacate her anchor chair this morning, leaving Sheinelle Jones with the task of handling her flagship morning news show duties.
The program’s long-running co-host — who made her last live appearance on Today and Today with Hoda and Jenna on Friday, Feb. 17 — was MIA again Monday morning. (Kotb was present for the Feb. 20 Presidents’ Day episode of Today with Hoda and Jenna, but that episode was taped on Feb. 17.) Kotb’s respective co-hosts, Savannah Guthrie and Jenna Bush Hager, have not addressed her disappearance on air, beyond saying she is “out.”
Exclusives
The Allen Media Group free digital streaming platform Local Now has added three NBC News FAST channels to its lineup. In partnership with NBC News, Local Now has expanded its news and entertainment footprint […]
NBC News and MSNBC were undergoing a round of layoffs on Thursday, although the impact appeared to be less severe than the staff reductions at other media entities. The layoffs were in the double digits, according to a source, out of a workforce of about 3,500. CNN reported that the number was around 75. The staff cuts also were scattered across the divisions, according to the source. No on-air talent was expected to be impacted. This follows the announcement earlier this week of layoffs across the parent company NBCUniversal, numbering in the dozens.
Noah Oppenheim, president of NBC News since early 2017, will leave the organization in an unorthodox shake-up that will elevate three different executives, effectively separating the massive news outlet into different pieces, all of which will report to Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal’s portfolio of news assets.
The attorney, who represented actor Johnny Depp in his defamation trial against Amber Heard, has inked a deal as a legal analyst for the news division. Vasquez made her first appearance for NBC on Monday morning, discussing the Idaho college student murders.
NBC News has temporarily removed journalist Ben Collins, who covers disinformation and extremism and their intersection with digital venues, from regular reporting on Twitter and Elon Musk according to a person familiar with the matter, citing remarks on social media that the NBCUniversal news organization felt were not consistent with its editorial standards. NBC News declined to make executives available for comment.
The Today show anchor appeared briefly on the show Monday to give an update on his health after spending four weeks in the hospital.
Ana Cabrera, an up-and-coming daytime anchor at CNN, is expected to leave the network and join NBC News, according to three people familiar with the matter — the latest in a series of CNN personnel who have defected to the NBCUniversal news unit.
Catherine Kim, a senior NBC News executive who has played a significant role in the evolution of the company’s digital efforts, will now have more say over some of its TV work as well. Kim, who has been SVP of digital news for NBC News and MSNBC, was named SVP of NBC News editorial on Wednesday, charged with oversight of editorial units across both digital and TV.
She will be senior legal correspondent for NBC, covering the Supreme Court and Department of Justice, appearing on all NBC News programs and platforms. Rich Greenberg, NBC News VP and head of investigations, announced Jarrett’s hire in a memo Wednesday morning.
NBC Today show correspondent Miguel Almaguer has been suspended pending an internal investigation after NBC News had to retract his reporting that inflamed right-wing conspiracy theories about the brutal assault on Paul Pelosi.
CBS Mornings may trail Good Morning America and Today in the weekday ratings, but its Saturday iteration beat one of its counterparts this past week. On Saturday, Nov. 5, CBS Saturday Morning beat NBC’s Saturday Today for the first time ever in total viewers and in the adults 25-54 demo.
People at the network said the Today report was based on “unreliable” information from a source who was unnamed in the story. Above, the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and husband Paul Pelosi in San Francisco. (Jeff Chiu/AP)
On Wednesday, the longtime NBC Newser and Nightly News anchor received the 2022 Freedom of Speech Award from The Media Institute.
The second Next Level Summit being held Tuesday is part of NBCU Academy, a nearly two-year-old initiative that also includes jobs, journalism training videos and partnerships with some 45 colleges and universities.
The true crime storytelling that has done so well for so long on television seems to have met a moment in an entirely new medium.
Engel, the NBC News chief foreign correspondent, accepted the award Thursday evening Indianapolis, and in his acceptance remarks, delivered what came across as “a call to action” to the journalists in attendance, warning that free speech and democracy are endangered — and that journalists have a responsibility to overcome what he calls “censorship by static” that has come to characterize the social media age over the past 16 years.
NBCUniversal Chief Executive Officer Jeff Shell has asked his top deputies to find savings at its legacy cable and broadcast TV networks, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans haven’t been finalized.
The special follows the lives of five Ukrainian mothers, all survivors fighting in different ways. In a clip, one of them clutches the hands of foreign correspondent Molly Hunter as she details the horrors she’s been through.
Gelles joins the legendary Sunday show with Chuck Todd after nine years at CNN, including a stint as senior broadcast producer of The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Gelles also led the creation and development of four DC-based CNN+ shows: Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace, The Newscast with Wolf Blitzer, The Source with Kasie Hunt and Jake Tapper’s Book Club.
NBC News celebrated Pete Williams with a send-off at the Cosmos Club in Washington as the longtime Supreme Court and Justice Department correspondent prepares to retire at the end of the month. Williams, who has been with the network for almost 30 years, plans to file his final report on Friday.
