Hoda Kotb has now officially been working at NBC News for a quarter of a century.
Hoda reached her 25-year work anniversary April 6, and TODAY's Savannah Guthrie, Craig Melvin, Al Roker and Carson Daly surprised her with a celebration on the plaza.
Hoda is known for her authenticity and relatability. She joined NBC in 1998 as a correspondent for Dateline.
She started hosting the fourth hour of TODAY in 2007, which is now known as TODAY with Hoda and Jenna. In 2018, she became a co-anchor of the show alongside Savannah.
But while the anniversary marked a major milestone, Hoda wasn't sure what her fellow hosts were celebrating at first.
"Can I just say that this is a great day in NBC News history," Savannah teased on the plaza Thursday.
"Yeah," Hoda said, not knowing Savannah was referring to her.
"Because 25 years ago today, Hoda Kotb had her first day at NBC," Savannah said. Hoda's jaw dropped as she asked, "Is that for real?"
"Oh wow," Al exclaimed. "25 years!"
"Seriously?" Hoda asked in disbelief.
"25 years?" she asked Savannah. "I saw an anniversary. I was like, 'Oh is it you and Mike?' I thought you already had your anniversary."
"No," Savannah responded. "It's you. Happy anniversary. Aren't we lucky?"
She gave Hoda a great big hug while Al noted, "We are blessed."
"Thank y'all," she said, adding that it's gone by fast. "Twenty-five feels good."
Later on TODAY with Hoda and Jenna, Hoda said that she was still "shocked" by the anniversary.
"It's been such a fun 25 years," she told Jenna April 6. "I wonder why in any relationship you have ... how does it not feel like all those years? I think it's because it kept changing."
She said while she worked for Dateline for many years and loved it, she felt some pressure to change who she was.
"When I first got hired, I felt unworthy of that job and I remembered them saying, 'Change your hair, change your clothes, change this, change that,'" she recalled. "Nothing was right about me. I felt like I was putting a circle in a square trying to fit."
Fast forward to when she landed her role with TODAY, Hoda said she still felt pressure to become someone else.
"I only covered hard news (at the time), so when the more lighter fare came up, like this show, the bosses were very early on against me getting it," she recalled. "They were just like, 'Not her. She's boring. Don't pick her. You can try other people, but not her.' And I had one person who fought for me."
The person who championed her told her, "Be like the person you are in my office, not the boring one on TV," Hoda recalled, and even that made her question if she was actually boring.
"I was so busy trying to be right," she told Jenna.
But if the show is any indication, Hoda is definitely not boring. Remember when she dressed up as Carrie Underwood for Halloween and serenaded people on the plaza? Or, when she shared what she keeps inside the nightstand by her bed?
The celebration continued April 7, which marked the four-year anniversary of TODAY with Hoda and Jenna.
"I can't believe it's been four years," Hoda said.
"No, it's gone by so fast," Jenna agreed. "But we've also experienced a lot."
