“This marks an exciting new chapter for the fourth hour,\u201d TODAY executive vice president Libby Leist and Jenna & Friends executive producer Talia Parkinson-Jones said in a statement. “Jenna and Sheinelle are two extraordinary talents who have grown within the ranks of TODAY. They are beloved for their authenticity, warmth and genuine connection with our TODAY audience.”<\/p>\n
The announcement comes nearly a year after the departure of Hoda Kotb, a <\/strong>beloved mainstay of NBC News\u2019 “TODAY” for almost two decades, in January. Kotb has remained at NBC in various roles, including hosting “TODAY’s” podcast “Making Space” and co-anching the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade.<\/p>\n Since Kotb’s departure, Bush Hager has invited a long list of celebrities to co-host the fourth hour of “TODAY” with her. Those who co-hosted “Jenna and Friends” include: Michelle Obama, Tyra Banks, Andy Cohen, Scarlett Johansson and Jones.<\/p>\n Jones joined “Weekend TODAY” in 2014 and became co-host of “TODAY’s” third hour in 2019.<\/p>\n In January, Jones left “TODAY” temporarily due to a family health matter. Sheinelle\u2019s husband of 17 years, Uche Ojeh, died in May at the age of 45 after a battle with brain cancer.<\/p>\n Jones opened up about the loss of her husband in an interview with Savannah Guthrie ahead of her return to “TODAY” in September. She called his death “a beautiful nightmare.”<\/p>\n “We don\u2019t move on, but we move forward with our loved ones,” she said at the time. “I hope that just by me being on the set and me returning to work, it\u2019s like, ‘OK, if I can do it, so can you, right?’<\/p>\n Jones shares three children with her late husband: their eldest son, Kayin, and twins, Uche and Clara.<\/p>\n Bush Hager, one of former President George W. Bush\u2019s two daughters, joined “TODAY” as a correspondent in 2009. She began co-hosting the fourth hour of the network’s flagship morning show with Kotb in 2019, following Kathie Lee Gifford’s departure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The “TODAY” show announced on Tuesday that Sheinelle Jones will co-host the fourth hour of the network\u2019s flagship morning show alongside Jenna Bush Hager. Bush Hager said that Jones, 47, will join her on the newly-named TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle. On Jan. 12, Sheinelle will become the fourth hour\u2019s first permanent co-host since Hoda <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marketsfortress.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Sheinelle](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2025-10\/sheinelle-jones-te-251027-f82ed9.jpg\")