‘Today’ Fans Are Buzzing With Joy Over ‘Major Changes’ Coming to Hoda Kotb, Jenna Bush Hager’s Fourth Hour

The big changes coming to Today, and with those changes, come reactions from its viewing audience. The daytime talk show announced earlier today that co-hosts Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager announced today that starting Feb. 6, the Thursday and Friday episodes will be taped in front of a live studio audience. They even teased the big shake-up on Twitter yesterday, which prompted all sorts of speculation.

Guesses ranged from “a wedding for Joel and Hoda and we get to pick everything for them,” which was the most popular response, to hopes that Maria Shriver would be joining as co-host. Once the news was confirmed, the show tweeted out some information on how viewers can be part of the new live-audience tapings. This, of course, led to even more reactions about the upcoming change to their format.

“I always love watching every day,” wrote one fan after learning the news, adding that Kotb and Hager are “are simply the best and I could not get through college without it.” Another joked that “it’s a lot of fun seeing the two of you finally at the same time on screen was starting out to wonder if you guys were the same person just swapping out.” Still, a third simply hoped that “the Surprise Make-Over segment will still be featured” in the new live episodes.

Hager first made the announcement by telling the audience that “we’re having a baby, y’all,” before adding “this type of baby — not a person, but a show.”

Kotb quickly chimed in that they’re “not sure who our guests are gonna be,” but they were excited nonetheless.

“We don’t know any of the stuff. A lot of things are surprises, even to us. But I have to say, when we’ve done the show in front of an audience, it’s been really fun. Because sometimes it’s us and our awesome crew, but we always wonder, ‘What are you guys thinking? What do y’all like?’ And now you’ll be here and you’ll be able to tell us!”

The new live shows will be titled Hoda & Jenna & Friends, and are slated to be filmed on Thursdays in Studio 6A, which was previously home to both Megyn Kelly Today and Late Night with David Letterman.

Live episodes of Hoda & Jenna & Friends will kick off Thursday, Feb. 6 on NBC.