Meredith out, Ann moves up …
After weeks of speculation, Meredith Vieira, surrounded by her TODAY on-camera team, officially announced that she will be leaving her morning co-anchoring duties in June.
Ann Curry has been named co-anchor and will become Matt Lauer‘s on camera sidekick. Natalie Morales has been elevated to the news anchor desk, and Savannah Guthrie will co-host the third hour of TODAY. The new team will debut in June.
Meredith got a little teary-eyed: “This is a difficult day for me. I’m going to try to hold myself together here. But after months of personal reflection and private conversations between my family and my friends, I’ve decided to leave.”
She went on to say: “I’ve really had a great time, but time is one of those weird things; you can never get enough of it. And it just keeps ticking away, and I know that I want to spend more of mine with my husband, Richard, and my kids, Ben, Gabe and Lily.”
Meredith didn’t close the door entirely, indicating that she hopes to be working on future projects with NBC.
Check out the entire conversation on video below:
Photo: NBC