Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager have a plan for the 2024 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
“Last year, Hoda and I came up with this secret symbol, which was Hoda brushing her teeth with a finger,” Bush Hager, 43, said. wednesday episode “Today with Hoda and Jenna.”
Kotb, 60, said the symbol was an “indicator that I was thinking about Jenna.”
This Thanksgiving will mark the last holiday that the fourth-hour “Today” co-hosts celebrate on air as Kotb is set to exit the show in early 2025.
The anchor shared that she has planned another sweet gesture for the parade.
“I was thinking, like, ‘What could this possibly be?’ And there’s only one thing it can be,” Kotb said, noting that she would be copying the dance moves from Matt Rogers’ “Rockafellasanta.” video music,
In the track, Rogers, 34, sings, “I wanna see Jenna Bush Hager come out of the building / ‘Cause that’s where she works.” As he sings the song in the music video, his “Las Culturistas” podcast co-host, Bowen Yang, waves his arms while dancing with Kotb and Bush Hager.
“So, every time I see Jenna, I’m like (dance),” he continued before taking a step. Bush Hager echoed his best friend’s sentiments: “We do this together. It’s kind of our call sign.”
And Bush Hager will certainly be glued to the television after missing Kotb’s gesture last year.
“At the beginning of the parade, our (Christmas) tree fell down along with all the props,” the anchor confessed. “I stopped (the parade) because I was looking for (Hoda’s signal), and someone texted me and a lot of (social media users) said, ‘Hey Jenna, go, go. She did it, she did it.’ So again, we’ll have to see.
Bush Hager shared a sweet shoutout on social media, posting a screenshot of Kotb pretending to wipe lipstick off her teeth from last year’s parade broadcast.
“What is true @hodakotb! HIS SECRET SIGN!!! he captioned 2023 Instagram Post.
A month later, Rogers and Yang, 34, “hoda and jennaTo perform their cheeky holiday track live.
“Tis the season of giving, you guys. I’m giving you a theme song. I say, ‘What can I do to give back to the culture?'” When it came to what inspired his track, Rogers shared both. “I’m walking around Rockefeller Center, which is the coolest place in the city. And I was like, ‘RockaFellaCenta.’ I think it just came to my mind. I said, ‘Let me put it on a full-length album.'”
Kotb debuted as host of “Today’s” first fourth-hour weekday morning in 2007, and reflected on his decades-long career with the network in an emotional letter after announcing his departure earlier this year.
He wrote at the time, “My time at NBC has been the longest professional love affair of my life.” “But only because you have been with me on this 26-year adventure. In retrospect, the math is messed up. 26 years on NBC News – ten years on ‘Dateline’, seven at seven, sixteen years at ten.
“I’m imagining your faces and your families and all the ways you’ve lifted me up and inspired me,” Kotb said. “He’s making my heart sing. “Many of my professional relationships have become some of my most cherished friendships.”
Although she had been thinking about the move “for some time”, she realized that she was really ready for a change in her life.
Kotb concluded, “My sixtieth birthday celebration on the Plaza felt like a turning point.” “Like a huge, joyful Yes you! I saw it all very clearly: my broadcasting career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life is about to dawn, and now my daughters and my mother need and deserve a larger share of my time. Are. I will miss you all so much, but I am ready and excited.”
After this the anchor spoke openly about his decision on air.
“I realized that at 60 it was time to turn the page and do something new,” he said, crying. “I remember standing outside and looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these beautiful signs, and I thought, ‘This is what the top of the wave looks like to me.’ And I thought it couldn’t get any better, and I decided it was the right time for me to move on.”
Kotb, who is mother to daughters Haley, 7, and Hope, 5, admitted the pivot is to help her focus more on her family.
She added, “Obviously my kids were born late in life, and I was thinking they deserved a larger portion of my time.” “I feel like we only have a limited amount of time. And so, all that being said, it is the hardest thing in the world.
craig melvin will succeed She would become Savannah Guthrie’s “Today” co-anchor, and the fourth hour of “Today with Jenna & Friends.” Roving guests will continue to host until Kotb’s replacement is chosen.
The 98th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will air on NBC and Peacock on Thursday, November 28 at 8:30 pm ET.
(TagstoTranslate)Entertainment(T)Celebrities(T)TV(T)Hoda Kotb(T)Jenna Bush Hager(T)Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade(T)Television(T)Thanksgiving(T)Today Show
