Hoda Kotb left the Today show after NBC proposed a $20 million pay cut

Hoda Kotb’s surprising decision to leave her role at NBC Today Reportedly, the broadcast after 26 years was partly due to the network asking him to take a pay cut.

The broadcast journalist, who turned 60 last month, is believed to have received an annual salary of more than $20 million.

Puck news reported that NBC executives “made it clear to their agents that such gigantic contracts could no longer be justified given the industry’s inexorable decline.”

The Independent has reached out to Kotb and NBC representatives for comment.

Ratings for morning news programs have been declining across the board for several years. For context: a decade ago Today was able to attract more than 4.6 million viewers every day. This month, the show averaged just over 2.5 million viewers.

Last Thursday, Kotb announced her departure during an episode of the long-running morning show.

“I realized that at 60 it was time for me to turn the page and try something new,” she said. “I remember standing outside looking at this beautiful group of people with these beautiful signs and I thought, ‘This is what the peak of the wave feels like to me.’ And I thought it couldn’t get any better and decided this was the right time for me to kind of move on.”

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She added that spending more time with her young daughters Haley, seven, and Hope, five, was also an important part of her decision.

“Obviously I had my kids late in life, and I thought they deserved a bigger piece of the time that I have,” she said. “I feel like we only have a limited amount of time.

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

She made it clear that she will continue to host Today Show alongside co-host Savannah Guthrie through January 1, 2025.

“For me, this is a big deal,” Kotb said. “I practiced not to cry, but I did it anyway.”

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Kotb has been a staple at NBC News for nearly three decades, first joining the network in 1998 as a correspondent on its weekly nighttime show Dateline.

In 2008, she co-hosted the fourth hour of Today Show with Kathie Lee Gifford and then Jenna Bush Hager in 2019.

After NBC fired Today After the show’s host, Matt Lauer, faced allegations of sexual misconduct in 2017, Kotb stepped in alongside Guthrie as a temporary replacement. Weeks later, her role became permanent as viewers responded well to her and Guthrie.

In conversation with the New York TimesGuthrie praised Kotb’s decision, saying, “It takes so much courage to leave a place where you feel so comfortable and where you are so loved. “There’s nothing rash about that.”

She added that she was “super proud” and “super heartbroken” over the news.