The morning had already been full of tributes when the “Immediately” anchor Savannah Guthrie checked out her longtime colleague, Hoda Kotb, and teased one other shock.
“Nicely, hear, we have now one remaining visitor this hour who actually needed to want you effectively in your subsequent journey,” Ms. Guthrie mentioned.
Kermit the Frog then popped above the sofa and commenced serenading Ms. Kotb with “Rainbow Connection,” a music that she apparently sings to her two younger daughters each night.
“Oh my God,” Ms. Kotb mouthed, as she held her ladies on the “Immediately” sofa and wiped away tears.
Throughout a lot of the 8 a.m. hour of NBC’s “Immediately” on Friday, all the large tales on a really chaotic information day — the Los Angeles fires, president-elect Donald J. Trump’s sentencing in a New York courtroom, the Supreme Courtroom TikTok listening to — had been placed on pause.
As a substitute, the present was an prolonged celebration of Ms. Kotb, who was anchoring “Immediately” for the ultimate time. In September, Ms. Kotb, in a shock announcement, mentioned that she would step down from the job, one of the vital distinguished in tv, after being a part of the present for 17 years. She mentioned on the time that her latest sixtieth birthday prompted her to need extra time along with her kids. NBC introduced in November {that a} “Immediately” fixture, Craig Melvin, would substitute her.
Ms. Kotb’s departure has allowed NBC to flaunt one thing that may be often elusive to the “Immediately” franchise: a peaceable switch of energy.
Ms. Kotb’s predecessor, Matt Lauer, by no means had an opportunity to say farewell to viewers after he was abruptly fired from the community, having been accused of sexual misconduct. When Ann Curry was compelled to go away as a co-host of “Immediately” in 2012, she all however instructed viewers she was not leaving voluntarily. “For all of you who noticed me as a groundbreaker, I’m sorry I couldn’t carry the ball to the end line, however man, I did attempt,” she mentioned on her remaining episode as co-host.
Ms. Kotb, alternatively, is leaving whereas she is on high. And the community that she’s referred to as house for 26 years has made it clear it will be joyful to offer her a star-spangled send-off.
Particular visitors — together with Simone Biles, Kathie Lee Gifford, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Jimmy Fallon and Jamie Lee Curtis — all provided tributes on Friday, capping off every week that “Immediately” had billed as a “Hoda-bration!”
“I can’t consider you got here,” Ms. Kotb mentioned, her voice breaking, upon greeting and hugging the gymnast Ms. Biles within the studio.
“After all,” Ms. Biles replied. “You confirmed up and supported me.”
Ms. Kotb is leaving an trade that’s within the throes of serious tumult. Salaries for information anchors are starting to fall sharply, and different veterans, together with Chris Wallace of CNN and Neil Cavuto of Fox Information, additionally introduced departures not too long ago.
Ms. Kotb is leaving “Immediately” in superb form. The present has bested its rival, “Good Morning America,” in whole viewers and all the important thing scores demographics for 10 consecutive weeks. That’s the present’s longest such successful streak in additional than a decade. Ms. Kotb can be departing her function internet hosting the present’s common 10 a.m. hour alongside Jenna Bush Hager.
Throughout the 8 a.m. hour on Friday, Ms. Guthrie and different “Immediately” regulars gave their farewells in a video bundle.
“Hoda, I really like you, I really like you deeply,” Ms. Guthrie mentioned. “Like I all the time inform you, whether or not you’re sitting subsequent to me or not, whether or not we rise up at 4 within the morning collectively or not, I’ll all the time be your facet, and you’ll all the time be by mine.”
Ms. Kotb, once more in tears, then checked out her colleagues, and paid honor to every of them. She instructed Carson Daly that he was the “secret sauce” of the present. To Al Roker, she mentioned he was her first good friend at “Immediately.” To Ms. Guthrie, she mentioned, “My God, you’re my particular person, you’re my particular person.”
And to her successor, Mr. Melvin, she instructed him that he had “earned this,” earlier than she kicked off a refrain off laughter from the “Immediately” studio.
“Come Monday, at 7 a.m.,” she mentioned, “I’m going to be useless asleep.”
