Revolving Door Round-Up: Craig Melvin Succeeds Hoda Kotb on Today

Melvin will take Kotb's place on the couch starting Jan. 13

Today’s New Hire: NBC News has announced Craig Melvin as Today’s new co-anchor beginning Jan. 13. Melvin will succeed Hoda Kotb, who announced in September that she was stepping down from her co-anchoring duties.

“I am beyond excited and grateful,” Melvin told his co-hosts while sitting on the famed Today couch. “I’ve enjoyed just a lifetime of blessings, and this is the latest in a long line of blessings.”

“You have all the things this job needs,” Kotb told her successor. “You are the right person for it.”

Melvin is a familiar face for Today viewers. In addition to having been the morning show’s news anchor since 2018, he’s also a co-host of the morning show’s 9 a.m. edition. In acknowledging the upcoming transition, Savannah Guthrie said that while Kotb is “irreplaceable in our hearts,” Melvin is “talented, wonderful, hard-working, [and] most-worthy.”

Capital Chalian: CNN is promoting its political director David Chalian to senior vice president and Washington, D.C. bureau chief. In this new role, he’ll continue to oversee the network’s cross-platform political reporting as well as coverage of the nation’s capital. Chalian has been with CNN since 2013 and previously worked at Politico, Yahoo, and PBS News Hour.

Foreign Affairs: ABC News foreign correspondent James Longman has been promoted to chief international correspondent. He’s reported from over 60 countries across all seven continents during his time at the network. “In this new, well-deserved role, James will continue to deliver best-in-class journalism for our audiences across all programs and platforms,” ABC News President Almin Karamehmedovic said in a statement.

Weekend Warrior: Max McClellan will be the new executive producer of PBS News Weekend. McClellan comes to PBS from Scripps News, where he was the senior executive producer for the national investigations unit and led the production of content across the company’s platforms. “I’m honored and excited to be joining the PBS News team,” he said in a statement, calling the public network the “gold standard of in-depth and trustworthy journalism.” Scripps News will shut down its 24/7 news operation on Friday.

New to Newsmax: Dennis Murphy, Jarrett Shustrin, and Lamar Goering have joined Newsmax as executive producers for the network’s key shows including American Agenda and Newsline. Murphy was most recently the senior producer of Fox News’ Outnumbered, while Shustrin oversaw the seven-hour morning news block at New York’s WPIX-TV, and Goering served as executive producer of WNYW’s Good Day New York.

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