Kotb replaces...

Hoda Kotb replaces Matt Lauer as 'Today' co-anchor

By REBECCA MORIN

Hoda Kotb will be the new co-anchor for the "Today" show after Matt Lauer, the former co-anchor, was fired last year following a complaint of sexual harassment by a coworker.

"This has to be the most popular decision NBC News has ever made, and I am so thrilled," co-host Savannah Guthrie said Tuesday morning on the "Today" show.

Lauer was fired last November after the network received a complaint of a female employee’s allegations of “inappropriate sexual behavior" and said there was "reason to believe this may not have been an isolated incident.”

Articles from Variety and The New York Times also had accounts from a number of women who were harassed by Lauer.

Kotb was the interim co-anchor following Lauer's firing. As the permanent co-anchor of the "Today" show, Kotb and Guthrie are the first female-only anchor duo in the show's history.

Kotb first joined the network as a correspondent on the "Dateline" newsmagazine in 1998. She also was a co-host in the 10 a.m. hour of the "Today" show since 2008.

"I am pitching myself, I think we should send some medics to Alexandria, Virginia where my mom is, she likely fainted after hearing the open of the show," Kotb said on the show.