The Today show has found its permanent cohost: Sheinelle Jones will join Jenna Bush Hager on the fourth hour of the NBC morning show, stepping into Hoda Kotb’s shoes after nearly a year-long search for Kotb’s replacement.

Hager announced the news on Tuesday’s show, calling Jones — who currently hosts the third hour of Today — an “extraordinary broadcaster” who “exemplifies exactly what this show is all about.” She also revealed that Jones will join the show, newly branded as Jenna & Sheinelle, on Jan. 12.

“To have a show like this is beyond my wildest dreams,” Jones said, while sharing a hug with her teary-eyed new cohost. “This is the real deal, and I get to do it with Jenna.”

In a statement to Today show staff, executive vice president Libby Leist and Jenna & Friends executive producer Talia Parkinson-Jones called Jones “a cherished member of NBC News for more than 11 years,” noting that she has interviewed both newsmakers and celebrities during her time on the network.

Who is Sheinelle Jones? 

The Philadelphia native and Northwestern University alum got her start in local news before moving on to Today on weekends in 2014. In 2019, she was promoted to host of the Today’s third hour.

Jones is a mother of three children, who she shared with her late husband Uche Ojeh, who died in May 2025 from brain cancer. Jones took time away from Today in late 2024 to deal with what she called a “family health matter” at the time, before returning to the show in September 2025.

The month of her return, Jones spoke with Savannah Guthrie on Today about losing Ojeh. “Day to day, I’m OK,” Jones said at the time. However, in the “macro,” Jones said that her “heart is shattered.”

“The life that I’ve known since I was 19 is no more,” she said.

That month, Jones returned to Today and shared a segment with Kotb, who praised Jones’s strength. “She's changing lives just by being exactly who she is,” Kotb said of the host.

On Tuesday, Kotb gave Jones the seal of approval on Instagram, writing alongside a photo of Jones and Hager on Today, “OK. I am weeping —- just watched @jennabhager and @sheinelle_o show us what a match made in heaven looks like. So proud of you both.”

What happened to Hoda Kotb? 

Kotb, who hosted the show with Hager since taking over from Kathie Lee Gifford in 2019, revealed in September 2024 that she would leave her role as Today co-anchor in early 2025, but still remain at NBC. Her last day on the show was Jan. 10, 2025. Since Kotb’s exit, the fourth hour of the program was rebranded as Today with Jenna & Friends, which featured a rotating cast of cohosts.

Kotb, who has two young daughters, said that leaving Today was about making a lifestyle change.

“For 26 years, I did similar things every single day. And one day, Kristen, in January, I woke up and my alarm didn’t go off at 3:30,” she told NBC’s Kristen Welker in a September 2025 interview. “I went downstairs to my office, and Haley ran down and she looked at me and said at 5 a.m., she said, ‘You really are here.’ And I think in that tiny moment I was like this decision was right on so many levels.”

Kotb said that, since leaving the show, she is “learning how to sleep again.”

“I’m learning new skills,” she continued. “I’m learning how to be a mom who’s there almost all of the time, and I’m learning all these things in my 60s.”

On the Dec. 9 edition of Today, Jones said that Kotb gave her advice about her new role. “She goes, ‘Don’t say anything, just listen,’ and she gave me 45 seconds of just wisdom that changed me,” Jones said of her phone call with Kotb. “She said you’re going to be doing graduation speeches and all that, and she goes, let’s remember this moment. You’re going to talk about how this was the moment that changed your career, and it was the best decision for your kids, for you.”