Jenna Bush Hager left 'blushing' by new co-host on first Today Show without Hoda Kotb
Jenna Bush Hager's new era is officially here.
On Monday, January 13, the first installment of the Today Show since the crew and fans bid farewell to Hoda Kotb following her departure aired.
Along with it, Jenna & Friends, which replaced 4th Hour with Hoda & Jenna, officially premiered, and its lead star is branding it her "dating era."
Jenna kicked off her new show with a behind-the-scenes moment in which she appeared giving herself a pep talk in the mirror, saying: "Okay JBH, it's a new show, it's a new era, you've got this!"
"My mind is clear, my heart is full," she went on, exclaiming: "Is this really happening?" before her very first guest co-host, actress Taraji P. Henson, knocked on the door to take her out to the stage.
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Once the show kicked off — with Jenna sitting in the side of the table that Hoda used to — she and Taraji, who is based in Los Angeles, began by discussing the fires that have ravaged over 30,000 acres of the city.
"It's our first day which is a little crazy," Jenna then said, addressing her show's new format, and asked how she was feeling, she replied: "When you have a team like this team … and we have built a show, Hoda and I, that feels like something I'm proud of, it feels exciting."
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She then joked: "I mean, I was a child bride, I got married at 26 … and so I haven't dated, and this is kind of my dating era. And you're my first date! And I'm blushing."
Jenna has a slew of star-studded "dates" coming up. Following Taraji's stint as co-host, Scarlett Johansson, Keke Palmer and Eva Longoria are next on the list.
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"It's just wild — just the fact that these A-list of stars who could be doing anything want to be sitting on our set is a testament to the show and to what we've built," she also told Today.
And though she compared the process to dating, she maintained: "It's more like, 'Let's have fun. And while we're having fun, something is going to click."
Outside of Today, Jenna has been married to her husband Henry Hager since 2008, who she met when he was 22 and he was working for her father George W. Bush's reelection campaign. They share three kids, Mila, 11, Poppy, 9, and Hal, 5.
