NBC's Today has dealt with its fair share of controversies and hiccups in recent years, and its front line anchors are a slightly different bunch than they were five or six years ago. The morning news telecast went through a bit of an upheaval in 2018, largely thanks to the comings and goings of former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, who lost her Today hour back in October. Now, we finally know who will officially be taking her place during Hour 3: Sheinelle Jones, Dylan Dreyer, Al Roker and Craig Melvin.
To celebrate the big announcement going public, meteorologist and news correspondent Dylan Dreyer shared a pic of Today's newest foursome. As everyone can see below, each member of the team is rocking a giant smile, with Al Roker's seemingly at a breaking point.
Even though this is the newest official team-up for Today's third hour, it's not as if anyone in this quartet is actually new to NBC News or to the Today franchise. These well-known on-air personalities have worked their way through the ranks at NBC to earn their spots. Megyn Kelly herself got the solo Megyn Kelly Today gig as part of that mega-deal with NBC News that was meant to keep her in the network's ranks for years to come.
Sheinelle Jones joined NBC News back in 2014, and later became the co-anchor for Weekend Today. She has also been a frequent contributor and stand-in anchor for the weekday Today installments, on top of also appearing on MSNBC Live.
Dylan Dreyer, meanwhile, joined the NBC News squad as a meteorologist in 2012, and soon became part of the Today and Weekend Today crews as a weather correspondent and weather anchor. Beyond also contributing her weather skills for NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Dreyer also had/has her own standalone series titled Journey with Dylan Dreyer.
Back in 2011, Craig Melvin joined NBC News as part of the MSNBC Live program, working as a weekend anchor. He spent 2015-2018 as the co-anchor on Weekend Today before he was upgraded to be a Today anchor back in August. He was also a correspondent on Sunday Night with Megyn Kelly, but that job obviously isn't one he's still showing up for.
Then there's Al Roker, the NBC vet with the most experience. His network career started back in 1978, and he joined Today as a fill-in meteorologist from 1990-1995, becoming a full-timer in 1996. Roker was previously one-half of a Today hosting with Tamron Hall, who exited the NBC series in the wake of the news that Megyn Kelly was joining the network.
Now that NBC and Today's producers have figured out what they're doing with Hour 3, the discussions can now turn to replacing anchor Kathie Lee Gifford, who is vacating her fourth-hour position in April 2019. Something tells me nobody is going to be calling Megyn Kelly to ask if she's too busy to return.
Though her arrival at NBC was treated like a major draw by execs, it quickly became obvious that she was not the most perfect fit. Her talk show debuted to much scrutiny and criticism, and her Today time slot did not fare much better. The straw that broke the camel's back, however, came in late October, when she made on-air comments defending the use of blackface as a Halloween costume, inspiring a large backlash. NBC cancelled her program three days later.
Today airs weekday mornings (and beyond) on NBC at 7:00 a.m. ET, with the new crew taking over the 9:00 a.m. ET time slot. Be sure to tune in to see how they do, and don't forget to keep our 2019 midseason schedule bookmarked to discover all the new and returning shows hitting soon.
