Jenna Bush Hager’s Today Co-Host Revealed After Hoda Kotb’s Exit
Today’s Sheinelle Jones has been announced as Jenna Bush Hager’s permanent co-host after Hoda Kotb’s departure. Jenna and Friends will be renamed Jenna & Sheinelle beginning Jan. 12.
Jenna Bush Hager is ready to officially inaugurate a new colleague.
After nearly a year of rotating guest co-hosts including Brooke Shields, Olivia Munn and Scarlett Johansson, the Today With Jenna & Friends host revealed that Today’s Sheinelle Jones will join her as her permanent co-host in the new year.
"Today, I am so thrilled to announce I have found my forever friend, and we are going to start a brand new journey in January,” Jenna said during the Dec. 9 episode of the morning show. “I couldn't be more excited to share this person with you all. You all know her. She's an extraordinary broadcaster, but more importantly, she exemplifies exactly what this show is all about."
For her part, Sheinelle is equally as thrilled to join the fourth hour of the NBC News broadcast, adding, “I look back at my career, and it was just like one market at a time, you know, things just kept happening. And so now to have a show like this is beyond my wildest dreams. This is the real deal, and I get to do it with Jenna."
The pair both grew emotional detailing their long friendship, as Jenna added, "To get to sit next to Sheinelle, I've known her for a decade, but to get to fall even more in love with her will be a beautiful chapter in this show."
Though speculation swirled for months that oft-recurring cohosts like Matt Rogers or Regina Hall could be poised to take over the vacant seat left by Hoda Kotb in January, Sheinelle will join the newly-coined Today with Jenna & Sheinelle beginning Jan. 12.
The 47-year-old joined the Today family in October 2014 as a coanchor of Weekend Today and has hosted the Third Hour of Today since January 2019.
