Craig Melvin Will Replace Hoda Kotb as Co-Anchor of the ‘TODAY’ Show [Video]

“Craig Melvin is the new anchor of the Today show!” co-host Savannah Guthrie gushed, calling this “one of the most popular decisions NBC News has ever made.”

Melvin became a news anchor for Today in 2018 and co-host of Third Hour of Today the following year. He will co-anchor alongside Guthrie for the 7 and 8am hours beginning January 13, NBC said.

“You were made for this job. … You have all the things that this job needs. You’re the right person for it,” Kotb told her successor.

Melvin said it was “the latest in a long line of blessings.”

“I am beyond excited and grateful… I talked to mom and dad yesterday and I’m thankful they’re still young enough and healthy enough to be able to see this.”

The replacement comes after Kotb announced she was leaving the network after 26 years on September 26.

“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” the host said at the time.

The broadcast journalist, who turned 60 in August, explained that spending time with her young daughters, Haley, seven, and Hope, five, was also an important part of her decision.

“Obviously I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have,” she said. “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.

“And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world,” Kotb said.