Natalie Morales’ days on the Today Show are numbered and, in fact, might already be over. A new report today suggests that she and Willie Geist have both been shown the door.
An NBC insider told Us Weekly today that Geist and Morales were “recently told they were fired.” The source claimed that Morales is already taking with ABC News, while Geist is talking with CBS. (Geist’s father, Bill Geist, is a frequent contributor to CBS Sunday Morning.)
The report comes just days after the New York Post claimed that Morales was being pushed out because NBC News President Deborah Turness is looking to give Tamron Hall a bigger presence on the show. Just yesterday, it was confirmed that Jamie Horowitz, who was hired by NBC to oversee the Today Show in September, was fired even before he was to formally start his job.
While Turness may have supported Hall on Today, Us Weekly’s insider suggests that Hall could be demoted to MSNBC, while Josh Elliott would become the newsreader. Hoda Kotb, the co-host of the 10 a.m. hour, could be asked to join the 9 a.m. slot permanently.
However, a rep for Today told Us, “We have a strong anchor team we want here for a long time.”
Today has been in a state of flux for the past two years, since Ann Curry was pushed out in favor of Savannah Guthrie. When that happened, there were rumors that Morales was unhappy that she was passed over, but she had stayed on. In the meantime, it has continued to lose in the ratings to Elliott’s former show, ABC’s Good Morning America.
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