Jimmy Fallon Gives Hoda Kotb Sweet NBC Memento for Her Home During Her Last Day at ‘Today’—as He Vows To Visit Her at $2.9 Million Abode
Today
“Today” host Hoda Kotb was given a small piece of NBC history that she can keep forever inside her home—as she marked her last day on the morning show after a historic 17-year run.
The 60-year-old news anchor, who announced back in September that she would be stepping down from her hosting role, spent much of her last day on air in tears, receiving tribute after tribute from celebrity guests, co-stars, and audience members.
However, her fellow NBC star Jimmy Fallon found a rather more unique way to wish Hoda well on her final day, sharing with her a framed piece of carpet taken from inside the elevators at 30 Rock, where both of their shows are filmed.
The dark red carpet square features the gold NBC peacock logo on it, with Jimmy telling Hoda that he had titled the piece, “Onward and Upward,” because he believes she is “getting on the elevator and going up.”
He went on to joke that the frame is small enough that Hoda can hide it in her closet if she doesn’t want to hang it on the walls of her newly purchased $2.89 million Bronxville, NY, home, where she relocated with her two daughters in 2024.
Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images
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Instagram/Hoda Kotb
However, Jimmy vowed to visit Hoda at her new suburban abode, noting that—should she choose to secret his gift away—she will have to pull it out and put it on the wall whenever he stops by.
During their years at NBC, Hoda and Jimmy formed a close friendship, with the “Today” anchor’s kids, Haley and Hope, calling out to their “Uncle Jimmy” from the audience of the morning show during the sweet segment.
Hoda’s final day on “Today” was filled with touching moments that she shared with a number of celebrity guests, including gymnast Simone Biles, her CBS Mornings lookalike, Gayle King, and her former co-host, Kathie Lee Gifford.
Musician Walker Hayes filled Hoda’s final on-air moments by performing a song that the two of them wrote together—just weeks after he appeared on her popular podcast, “Making Space.”
During the podcast episode, the mother of two opened up to Walker about how excited she was to be able to lead a more normal day-to-day life with her daughters, admitting that one of the things she was most looking forward to about her retirement from the show was walking her kids to school every day.
“It’s funny, when I was mentioning that I was going to leave the ‘Today’ show, one of our producers came upstairs in the makeup room, and she said, ‘I want to say something to you,'” Hoda recalled. “She goes, ‘My mother walking me to school every day was the best memory I’ve ever had.’
“And all I want to do is walk my kids to school. And it’s the simplest thing, with a cup of coffee, walking your kids to school. But all the little things, you get to see growth.”
In pursuit of that dream, Hoda relocated her family from Manhattan to the suburb of Bronxville in mid-2024, after purchasing a four-bedroom, five-bathroom, center-hall Colonial in April.
Ahead of her final day on the show, the proud mom opened up to Today.com about the new routine that she hopes to embrace inside the home, telling the website that she was eager to settle into a more “normal” regimen after years of very early mornings.
Instagram/Hoda Kotb
Instagram/Hoda Kotb
“I’m just going to let us be a family with a normal rhythm of life. See what we become,” Hoda, who is being replaced by Craig Melvin, said.
“I’m going to let [my daughters] take more trips and stay up a little later because part of the reason I put them to bed at that hour is because I’ve got to go to bed. I’m like, ‘Goodnight! Everyone’s going to bed.’ They’re like, ‘It’s 6:30!’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, lights out!’
Walks in her local neighborhood will also be a key component of her day, with Hoda explaining that getting outside is a vital tool for her when it comes to stimulating her creativity.
“When you’re sprinting from place to place, you lose all your creativity. So I want to be able to have room to take walks outside,” she shared.
Hoda first revealed that she was thinking about moving out of her Manhattan home back in March, when she opened up about the many memories that she, Hope, and Haley had made in their apartment—admitting that it was not an easy decision to walk away from the abode.
“Both Haley and Hope came home there, and I remember them trying to crawl up the stairs,” she said on her “Making Space” podcast. “I mean, it’s like you want to hold on to things, and you want to let go.”
In August, Hoda opened up about the very specific requirements she had when it came to finding the perfect family home, revealing to her “Today” co-stars that she wanted to create a “warm and cozy” environment where her children could relax and find sanctuary.
“It’s all new,” she said of her move. “New kids, new school, new things, new everything. And it’s funny because all I could think of was I want my house for the kids to feel warm and cozy and a place where they want to hang. And that’s it.”
She added in an interview with People: “I want my kids to feel grass on their feet, and play in the yard, and ride bikes down the street, and run up and down the stairs.”
Hoda ended her last show at “Today” by embracing that vision, driving off from the studio in her newly purchased white minivan along with her two children, shouting, “Bye!” as she made her way home, according to Today.com.
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