Hoda Kotb Reveals How She Landed ‘Today’ Co-Anchor Job After Matt Lauer Was Booted

Isn’t it great when the right thing happens? That’s the situation with 10am hour ‘Today’ anchor Hoda Kotb being promoted to Matt Lauer’s spot, after doing a great job filling in.

“After everything went down,” Hoda Kotb, 53, told Ellen DeGeneres, 59, on the Jan. 23 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, speaking about (but never directly mentioning) Matt Lauer, 60, and the allegations of sexual misconduct, “they asked me to fill in for the rest of the week and I said, ‘sure.’ And then, the next week they said, ‘we’re sorting things out. Can you fill in the next week?’ And then the third week came…it was never really, ‘we want to offer you something. They said, ‘we think this is working. Do you think this is working? Do you think this is something you’d want to try?’ It was very, I think, organic and real.”

“It didn’t feel like, ‘we’re calling you, here’s the moment.’ It just sort of merged into a job,” Hoda added. “I did sign a contract so I am doing it, but I don’t think it was such a formal ask, it just sort of [happened.]” It’s a good thing that it did, as Ellen pointed out that the ratings have been strong. The show has drawn in more than four million weekly viewers, proving that the show is doing just fine after Matt.

Though Hoda taking over for the disgraced newscaster was “organic,” it still had some bumps. When Hoda and her co-anchor Savannah Guthrie, 46, appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, she said that it was a “difficult time” for the Today show. “It was hard,” Savannah said. “Everyone saw it. We all went though it. But as you say, something really lovely because of it has happened and that’s where we’re focused.”

Matt Lauer, on the other hand, needs to focus on finding an AirB&B – fast! His wife, Annette Roque, 50, reportedly threw him out of their home in the Hamptons. Actually, Matt doesn’t really need to worry about finding a place to crash. While he’s reportedly not welcomed in his Hamptons mansion, he has a $36 million compound in North Haven, NY, a huge home in Sag Harbor and a 40-acre horse farm in Water Mill. He has plenty of choices of places to stay while he waits to see if (or when) Annette decides to file for divorce.

Are you glad that Hoda took over for Matt, HollywoodLifers?