The brutal truth descended into a river of tears on Thursday’s Today show after co-anchor Hoda Kotb, who co-anchored the 7-9 a.m. show for six years, announced her departure. Her departure is a stark symbol that the era of the all-powerful morning TV anchor is coming to an end.
“Next year is going to be a disaster,” a news executive at 30 Rock told The Daily Beast, noting that news anchors have been commanding high salaries for years. “All the big money guys are gone.”
According to Page Six, Kotb signed a $7 million-a-year deal when she took over the Today gig in 2018 (she also appears on Today’s fourth hour, and was initially hired by Kathie Lee Gifford, (Currently co-starring with Jenna Bush Hager). Her main show co-anchor, Savannah Guthrie, reportedly makes “well over” $8 million a year, according to a 2020 Page Six report outlining her contract negotiations at the time. .
Mr. Kotb’s departure, and the fact that NBC tolerated it, is the latest and perhaps most high-profile example of the men in suits prioritizing balance sheets over revenue-generating talent. It’s a big change from just three years ago, when Cesar Conde was willing to pay Rachel Maddow $30 million to work one night a week.
The current tough times mean such high salaries are a thing of the past, and the next ones who could be affected include hosts George Stephanopoulos and Robin Roberts. , ABC’s Good Morning America, where Michael Strahan currently earns a multi-million dollar salary.
According to CNN, Stephanopoulos signed a $15 million contract in 2019 and received a “significant pay increase” in 2021 after threatening to leave the ABC following a spat with David Muir. According to Forbes magazine, Robin Roberts’ salary in 2016 was reported to be $18 million. According to People magazine, Michael Strahan reportedly signed a contract with Live! in 2016 that would earn him an annual salary of approximately $20 million.
However, Disney, the owner of ABC, is facing its own financial crisis. According to Deadline, the company just laid off 300 people as part of a “cost-cutting plan,” and the New York Post reported that the company ordered Good Morning America to cut its bottom line by $19 million.
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager won the Best On-Air Talent – Lifestyle/Entertainment category at the 46th Annual Gracie Awards on October 5, 2021.
Getty Images for Women’s Alliance Media Foundation/Women’s Alliance Media Foundation
Kotub said Thursday that her decision was largely influenced by her desire to spend more time with her family, including her two young children. (Kotb has two young daughters, ages 7 and 4, but she was off the air for two weeks last year when one of her children had an undisclosed health emergency.) Here For weeks, Kotb has been upbeat about his recent moves. She and her children are building a new life there.
“I feel like my time is limited,” Kotub said Thursday. “That being said, it’s the hardest thing in the world.”
Sources indicate that the reasons for her exit stated on-screen are completely true and authentic, and as Kotb and her co-anchors are at pains to stress, she will not be allowed to leave the network. I plan to stay and contribute to specific projects. But it’s unlikely she’ll earn the paycheck that comes with anchoring NBC’s top brand for three hours. As she considers her new life and future plans for herself and her family, she also realizes that her salary probably won’t extend beyond her current boundaries, making her personal decisions more realistic. It must have provided some inspiration.
Robin Roberts arrives at the Coach Art Gala of Champions at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 17, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California.
Michael Tran/Film Magic
The morning television industry is in turmoil. In 2016, Today generated more than $500 million in revenue for the Peacock network. A 2021 report (by then-NBC reporter Dylan Byers) noted that the morning show brought in $408 million in revenue in 2019. In 2021, Today’s first two hours of advertising revenue was just under $300 million. Since then, the media industry has only gotten worse.
Additionally, although Today maintained a narrow lead in the advertiser-focused 25-54 demographic, it ranked second in total viewers for the 2023-2024 season behind ABC’s Good Morning America. (2.73 million compared to ABC’s 2.81 million). While these ratings have been relatively stable over the past two years, they differ significantly from the averages each network has seen since 2020 and earlier, according to a 2023 analysis of ComScore data by Pew.
In this worsening economic climate, networks are already taking action. CBS has effectively demoted CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell from the 6:30 p.m. slot and plans to transform the No. 3 half-hour program into a three-person program after the election. It also gave a discount when it re-signed CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King, just one week before firing CBS Saturday Morning co-host Jeff Groh as part of Paramount’s latest round of layoffs. It is possible that he did. For a company about to be taken over by a billionaire, it’s a sign that it can’t afford to continue losing money forever.
As NBC considers what the next edition of Today will look like, the competition for Guthrie’s co-anchor position is wide open and no name has yet been revealed. Crucially, this search period has given NBC (and other networks facing reverberating moments of change), Stephanopoulos (63), Roberts (63), Kotb, and even NBC’s Lester Holt (65) is to give an opportunity to replace the old famous brand faces, including —Younger, cheaper talent. After all, someone has to be able to help sell the “steal and deal” segment that generates money.
