Originally appeared on E! Online
Meteorologist Dylan Dreyer has a forecast on who might fill "Today's" soon-to-be empty anchor chair.
Shortly after longtime host Hoda Kotb tearfully announced on Sept. 26 that she will be stepping away from her co-anchor duties, her "Third Hour of Today" colleague Dreyer had some insight on who might replace the person she called the "heart and soul of the "Today" show.
And according to Dreyer, "Today" is “such a family” that she believes any of the team members — who include Craig Melvin, Sheinelle Jones, Jenna Bush Hager, Carson Daly and "Weekend Today" coanchors Peter Alexander and Laura Jarrett — have the talent to take over alongside co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.
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"I don’t think if they named anyone in our core group of people it would be surprising," Dreyer exclusively told E! News cohost Keltie Knight at the 2024 People’s Choice Country Awards on Sept. 26. "We’ve all filled in along the way when somebody’s out. I don’t know if anybody’s made any decisions yet, but if it’s one of the core group, I really don’t think it’s that surprising."
As for whether she's eyeing the role, the weather forecasater quipped, "Everybody knows I'm trying to get Al Roker to retire, let’s be honest."
But the news of Kotb’s departure, on the other hand, came as a surprise.
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"I knew about 10 minutes before the show started," Dreyer said. "Which, I think, is when everybody kind of found out."
But despite the unexpected news, several members of the "Today" show were on hand to support Kotb — who is mom to daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 5 — as she delivered the update on air.
"I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new," Kotb said through tears. "I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, and I thought, 'This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.' And I thought it can't get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on."
She went on to share that she plans to focus more on her family.
"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 continued. "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."
(E!, "Today," NBC and Peacock are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)
