Al Roker Calls ‘Today’ Transition From Matt Lauer to Hoda Kotb ‘Seamless’

Al Roker said the transition from Matt Lauer to Hoda Kotb at the Today Show was as smooth behind-the-scenes as it was in front of the camera.

“It’s one of those things where it’s just completely natural,” Roker said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight Saturday. “Hoda’s been there and everybody loves Hoda, so it’s been seamless.”

Roker said that he has communicated with Lauer, who was fired in November for alleged sexual harassment against female Today staffers.

“We wish nothing but the best for him and his family and [that] they get the support and the help that they need,” Roker told ET at the Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena.

Roker also told ET he hopes Hollywood will change with more people speaking out against sexual misconduct.

“I think people have to treat people kindly,” the longtime Today meteorologist said. “In the way they’d want to be treated themselves. I think it’s still all boils down to the Golden Rule in a sense.”

Roker’s comments followed Katie Couric‘s first full remarks on Lauer’s firing.

“The whole thing has been very painful for me,” Couric told PEOPLE on Jan. 13. “The accounts I’ve read and heard have been disturbing, distressing and disorienting and it’s completely unacceptable that any woman at the Today show experienced this kind of treatment.”

Courtic said she had “no idea” about Lauer’s behavior during her tenure or after she left.

“I really admire the way Savannah [Guthrie] and Hoda [Kotb] and the entire Today show staff have handled a very difficult situation,” Couric told PEOPLE.

The Nov. 29 edition of Today opened with Guthrie and Kotb announcing that Lauer was suddenly fired after NBC News received a complaint about his behavior towards a staffer during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. In the days that followed, more women came forward to accuse Lauer of workplace sexual harassment.

Kotb, who already hosts the fourth hour of Today with Kathie Lee Gifford and is a familiar face to NBC News viewers, sat in for Lauer. On Jan. 2, the network took off the “interim” tag on her title, making her Guthrie’s full-time co-anchor. She has been at NBC Since 1998 and started hosted the 10 p.m. ET hour of Today in 2008.

Since Lauer was fired, Today‘s ratings have been climbing.

Photo credit: Peter Kramer/NBC