Not today.
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager have had to follow some unusual rules while hosting “Today With Hoda & Jenna” on NBC.
Bush Hager, 43, said that when she joined the show as a correspondent in 2009, the network took issue with her saying the phrase “y’all.”
“[They were like], ‘Hey, y’all,’ isn’t for the whole country.’ And I was like, ‘Well, but it’s who I am,’” Bush Hager recalled on the program Monday.
“It’s so weird, and this happens in life too,” she went on. “If you have friends and then, all of a sudden, you’re acting not who you are, and you’re like, ‘Wait,’ something in your gut feels wrong.”
Jenna and her twin sister, Barbara Bush, are the daughters of former President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush. The siblings were born and raised in Texas.
“When they said, ‘You can’t say y’all,’ in my gut, I was like, ‘But why? We have to pretend to be news people?’” she continued.
“Because whenever you pretend to be a news person, I felt like I was acting. And we all know from [our ‘Titanic’ Halloween skit I’m not a great actor. When you try to pretend you’re somebody else, it feels crazy.”
Kotb, 60, who announced in September that she’s leaving the show, interjected: “If you don’t fit, they want you to wear something a certain way, cut your hair a certain way, speak a certain way.”
She continued, “I know when you came to the network, too, it’s like, ‘Welcome in, but you have to change.’”
Kotb has been a “Today” host since 2007 and will be replaced by Craig Melvin as Savannah Guthrie’s news co-anchor in January 2025. Bush Hager will continue hosting “Today With Jenna & Friends” with rotating guest hosts, until a permanent co-host is selected.
Kotb said that it took both of them “a long time” to learn to be themselves on the show.
“It took me longer than, I think, it took you,” she said.
Bush Hagar took the show to Texas for some “Texas Takeover” episodes, so she’s not repressing her personality and background too much.
“Austin was my home from middle school through college. I could not leave. I had to go to [the University of Texas at Austin],” Bush Hager said on the October 24 episode.
“I have lived out of Texas longer than I lived in it, and yet, it is still in every bone of my body. I love it so much.”
The Post reached out to NBC for comment.
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