‘Today’ Show Anchor Hints at Leaving the Show Following Hoda Kotb Exit News

Is Carson Daly leaving the Today show? The Today host got candid with The Daily Mail this week following the news of Hoda Kotb’s upcoming exit from the NBC morning show. As part of the show’s Halloween celebration, Daly spoke to The Daily Mail and admitted that he thinks about cutting down his workload.

“Wow, I cannot wait to get off television!” Daly, 51, said. “I still see Jay Leno on TV and I’m like, ‘Why?’ No, I am… I am looking to cut back. I lost my dad when I was 5, so my time with my kids is the most precious.”

Daly continued, “That’s what I think about Hoda, I’m happy for her, she’s gonna get more time. Walking your kids to school is way more important.” Kotb revealed in late September that she’ll be leaving the Today show in early 2025 to spend more time with her daughters, Haley, 7, and Hope, 4. Daly himself has four children with his wife Siri Pinter: a 15-year-old son, Jackson, and daughters Etta, 11, London, 9 and Goldie, 4.

Daly joined Today as a social media correspondent in 2013, with his role growing in the following years as he became a co-host. That certainly wasn’t his first foray into television, however, having been the host of The Voice since 2011 and getting his start as a VJ on MTV in the ’90s — most prominently as the host of TRL.

Time will tell if Daly is serious about spending less time in front of the camera. He told The Daily Mail that he’s still enjoying the work partly due to the authentic chemistry he has with his peers.

“There’s a saying that goes, ‘You can’t fake the funk,’ and I think people ask me about The Voice on NBC, they ask me all the time – when we find our coaches – ‘How do you find the right coaching panel for chemistry?’ Chemistry is an impossible thing to cast, and when you have it and when you get it, it’s really the most beautiful thing. And what you see on the Today show is an undeniable family chemistry that is just organic. God made it that way for this time and all of our lives to be working together and that’s the simple answer.”

He continued, “You can’t manufacture getting up at five in the morning and actually loving the person that you’re sitting next to. We all have a relationship outside of this show and I think it comes off on air, but you can’t fake that.”