Hoda Kotb returned to Today’s fourth hour on Monday, November 9, 2026, to guest-co-host alongside Jenna Bush Hager, filling in for Sheinelle Jones, TV Insider reports. Some viewers promptly started requesting an encore. Source
According to The US Sun, Bush Hager said Jones was briefly away while being recognized as a 2026 EBONY Power 100 honoree in Los Angeles. Source
“I walked in here, and I saw you walk into my little dressing room, and it was like not a day had passed,” Kotb said of seeing Bush Hager, as quoted by TV Insider. “That’s how life works, and it is true. Anybody who has a true, real friend knows this feeling.” Source
The US Sun reports that Bush Hager encouraged Kotb to say yes the next time a man she’d met on a plane asked her out. “So I want you to go on that coffee date,” Bush Hager said. A guest-hosting shift doesn’t get you out of a friend checking on your love life. Source
Kotb left Today in January 2025, making the appearance nearly two years after her departure. It wasn’t her first visit back, though: TV Insider notes that she previously guest-hosted with Bush Hager in May 2025.
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