If you’ve tuned into NBC News any time in the last few decades, you’re likely aware of Hoda Kotb, a revered television journalist best known for her long-time duty hosting the “Today” show. While the inspiring Oklahoma-born broadcaster has spent much of her time offering tales of human interest and up-to-the-minute news on “Today,” she recently announced her plans to depart her highly coveted co-anchor slot. This news came as a surprise to many, though a brief look at her net worth makes it clear that Kotb has enough liquid cash to do whatever she pleases. Per outlets such as Celebrity Net Worth, Hoda Kotb currently touts a fortune of more than $30 million. These figures come primarily from Kotb’s “Today” salary, though they are ameliorated by book sales, endorsement deals, and a wide array of other investments.
Given that Hoda Kotb is preparing to enter a new phase in her career, it seems like now is as good a time as any to perform a deep dive on her financial portfolio, offering something of a retrospective on her decades-long career thus far. Without any further preamble, let’s lay out the award-winning journalist‘s media record, with a specific focus on understanding her financial holdings and multiple income streams.
Early Life And Career Ambitions
Long before she was the face of NBC, Hoda Kotb was born to an Egyptian Muslim family in the humble town of Norman, Oklahoma. Her family originally emigrated from Egypt after spending some time in Nigeria, leaving Kotb with relatives who continue to reside in Africa to this very day. Growing up, Hoda and her immediate family were known to move around, going from Oklahoma to West Virginia, and landing in New Orleans. Despite her parents’ status as first-generation immigrants, they were well established fixtures in their community due to their important work. Her father was a consultant for a number of fossil energy groups, while her mother worked in the Library of Congress.
After settling in Virginia during Hoda Kotb’s high school years, the family would come to participate in annual Summer trips back to Egypt, where Kotb was able to get closer to her intercontinental relatives. Despite a few instances of culture shock, the host has made positive comments about the influence that these multicultural relationships have held in her life. By all accounts, Hoda was a happy and popular young woman, which makes perfect sense given her bubbly personality on the air. She was the homecoming queen in high school, and eventually joined the Delta Delta Delta sorority once she sought higher learning at Virginia Tech. By 1986, Kotb had graduated college with a Bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism, already having her sights set on a multimedia career.
Early Broadcasting Career
Lucky enough, Hoda Kotb managed to land her first on-the-air gig with CBS just a few brief years after finishing college. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, she served as a weekend anchor and reporter, bouncing from several different stations while covering timely current events in Mississippi, Illinois, Florida, and Louisiana. In 1998, she landed a new job at NBC News, serving as a correspondent for “Dateline.” While Kotb couldn’t have known it at the time, this was the start of a decades-long professional relationship which would carry her through her entire adult lifetime.
After taking on hosting duties on a revolving number of NBC shows, she eventually landed a spot on the “Today” show’s fourth-hour weekday morning broadcast. Though the segment aired at 10:00 AM in New York, when most people were at work or school, the role came with a number of perks, including job security that didn’t leave the host traveling to new locales across the United States each year. It also offered significant advancement opportunities, as Kotb would continue working her way up to prime-time co-anchor over the course of her decade-long tenure in the fourth-hour slot.
“Today” Show Fame
Needless to say, Hoda Kotb’s lengthy career as a broadcaster and television anchor has been the greatest contributing factor to her overall net worth, with her “Today” show gig offering the lion’s share. While little is known about her current annual salary at NBC, a recent write-up in People confirms that she was making at least $7 million per year when she was bumped up to co-anchor back in 2018. This matched the salary of her cohost Savannah Guthrie, with the two serving as the first female duo to run the series. The previous host, Matt Lauer, who left the show amid a flurry of sexual assault allegations, was reportedly making between $20-$25 million per year.
When asked if she was perturbed by this multi-million dollar wage gap, Hoda explained “I know it sounds ridiculous that I’m going to say this, but I really have done jobs I liked for the job I liked because I never wanted to be happy every other Friday on pay day… I wanted to feel good throughout. So no, I’m not making Matt Lauer money. Not even close.”
“Today” Show Departure
In September 2024, Hoda Kotb decided that it was time to step down as co-anchor, in order to spend more time with her family. Per the same People write-up mentioned above, the Peabody Award-winning journalist explained “I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new… I thought, ‘This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.’ And I thought it can’t get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on.” While this announcement is still fresh at the time of this writing, Hoda has confirmed that she plans to continue working at NBC in a less demanding capacity. For now, there has been no confirmation on what that entails, or what her new salary will reflect.
Kotb’s Writing Career
Though she is primarily known for her journalism, Hoda Kotb’s net worth has also been impacted by her success as an author. Her first book, an autobiography, was released in 2010 under the title “Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee.” The book, which quickly became a New York Times bestseller, told the anchor’s life story and offered a deep and vulnerable look into her battle with breast cancer in 2007. Since undergoing multiple surgeries for the illness, Kotb has become a noted advocate for breast cancer awareness, and has used her platform to keep viewers around the globe vigilant of the early warning signs.
In the years since the release of “How I Survived,” Hoda has authored numerous books, including additional autobiographies, collections of interviews, and even children’s fiction. Her second book was published in 2013, and bears the title “Ten Years Later: Six People Who Faced Adversity and Transformed Their Lives.” Each of Hoda’s books have seen major success, and her latest outing “This Just Speaks To Me” was published in October of 2020. Though she currently plans to scale back her work, many of Kotb’s fans are anticipating an increase in writing output once she wraps up with her co-anchor position.
Real Estate and Additional Ventures
Like many of her multimedia peers, Hoda Kotb has prudently invested in real estate throughout her time at NBC. Since “Today” films in Upper Manhattan, her primary residence has been an apartment in the region for many years. In 2018, after getting bumped up to the prime time slot, Kotb purchased a second home in the Point Lookout neighborhood of Long Island. While it remains unclear if she has offloaded the Manhattan residence, her Long Island pad cost her just North of $2 million.
Additional ventures which have ameliorated Kotb’s net worth over the years include her Sirius XM live show, which launched in 2015. The series, which serves as something of a companion piece to the “Today” show, allows Hoda to speak in a free and relaxed environment about casual water cooler topics of the week. With her current schedule opening, it’s possible that she’ll switch gears and make this radio show her main hustle with NBC moving forward.
