Is Scarlett Johansson closer to replacing Hoda Kotb on ‘Today’?
Paula Froelich
US actress Scarlett Johansson arrives for the 92nd Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on February 9, 2020. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP) (Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images)
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(NewsNation) — Hoda Kotb’s departure has left a huge hole in the third hour of “Today,” but her former co-host Jenna Bush has reportedly found a replacement.
While chatting with Tina Fey on stage at the Playground Partners Winter Luncheon at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Monday, Bush told Fey: “Hoda left and my heart is broken but I’m getting over it because Scarlett Johansson and I have matching earrings so — sorry, Hoda, I’ve moved on with one of the world’s most beautiful women!”
FILE – Colin Jost, left, and Scarlett Johansson arrive at the Oscars in Los Angeles on Feb. 9, 2020. The married couple, who once made comedy skits on “Saturday Night Live,” are reuniting onscreen for a new Super Bowl commercial. The 60-second ad launches Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, and will be televised during Super Bowl 56 on Feb. 13. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE – Scarlett Johansson attends the Golden Heart Awards, Oct. 16, 2023, in New York. Research shows that chatbots and fake social media accounts get more engagement when they have female personas because people are more likely to view women as warm and approachable, and to see chatbots with female personas as more human than those posing as male. Johansson declined OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s request to voice the ChatGPT AI program and threatened to sue when the company went with what she called an “eerily similar” voice. OpenAI put the new voice on hold. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
FILE – Scarlett Johansson arrives at the Bafta Film Awards, in central London, Feb. 2 2020. Johansson is suing the Walt Disney Co. over the company’s streaming release of “Black Widow,” which she said breached her contract and deprived her of potential earnings. The “Black Widow” star and executive producer filed a suit Thursday, July 29, 2021, in the Los Angeles Superior Court that said her contract guaranteed an exclusive theatrical release. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP, File)
FILE – Co-anchors Savannah Guthrie, left, and Hoda Kotb pose on set of the “Today” show at NBC Studios on Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK, NY – SEPTEMBER 06: Hoda Kotb is seen on the NBC Today Show at Rockefeller Plaza on September 06, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by NDZ/Star Max/GC Images)
TODAY — Pictured: Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on Monday, September 16, 2024 — (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb on NBC’s “Today” on August 12, 2024, in New York City. (Photo by NDZ/Star Max/GC Images via Getty Images)
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The crowd laughed, but speculation is rising that Johansson, who clearly loved her time co-hosting with Bush and whose husband, Colin Jost, works at “SNL” in the building, would be a perfect full-time replacement.
For the next month, Bush is still rotating people in and out of the chair. Up next: Kelsea Ballerini, Kimberly Schlapman, Ciara and Wynonna Judd … but don’t be surprised if, in a month or two, Johansson takes the full-time slot.
