Jenna Bush Hager introduces new co-host who makes surprise Today return

Jenna Bush Hager was joined by a familiar face on Monday’s episode of Today with Jenna and Sheinelle, after revealing that her co-host, Sheinelle Jones, was enjoying some time away from the desk for Spring Break.

The 44-year-old co-hosted the show with comedian Matt Rogers, who has guest-starred on Today several times and even co-hosted with Jenna on the final episode of the show’s fourth hour before Sheinelle joined as the permanent co-host in January.

“I feel like I’m back home,” Matt said, as Jenna replied: “We love it when you’re here.” Matt, who co-hosts the Las Culturistas podcast alongside Bowen Yang of SNL fame, was a fan-favorite guest host on Today in 2025.

Hoda Kotb left Today‘s fourth hour in January 2025 to spend more time with her young daughters, prompting Jenna to welcome a slew of celebrities to fill her seat throughout 2025 in a show called Today with Jenna and Friends.

Matt has appeared on the show 20 times, as he shared on his podcast, and even co-hosted the final episode of Jenna and Friends before Sheinelle joined as a permanent host. Many fans believed Matt would win a spot at the desk alongside Jenna, yet the Big Mouth star shared that he wasn’t suited to the job.

“I’m the last friend, and so I made a whole joke about how that meant I was second place,” he explained on the Las Culturistas podcast. “But by the way, I do wanna say, I knew the entire time I wasn’t getting that job. I did not want that job.”

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“Everyone was like, ‘Aw, were you disappointed?'” he recalled of the day that Sheinelle was announced as the new host. “I was like, ‘A, no. I wouldn’t want that schedule. B, Sheinelle Jones should have the job.'”

See more of Jenna and Matt below…

Matt added that while he never expected to land the job, “everyone thought I was a contender”, and he enjoyed “being in the conversation”. The star also shared that his friendship with Jenna was as strong as ever. “I am obsessed with her. I love her. I’m having the best time,” he said.

Meanwhile, Sheinelle is enjoying time away from the Today desk over Spring Break, after Jenna took a week off in mid-March for a vacation with her kids. Sheinelle stopped by her old workplace at Fox29 Philadelphia on Monday to chat about her new book, Through Mom’s Eyes, and reminisce about her time on the show.

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She co-hosted Good Day Philadelphia from 2005 until 2014, when she moved to NYC to join the cast of the Today show. The visit comes just after she and Jenna enjoyed a trip to Jamaica together, where they filmed Today‘s fourth hour.

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On the show, Jenna revealed that Sheinelle had come to her rescue after a night out together, when the blonde beauty had gotten stuck in her dress. “She had to literally get scissors and cut me out of my dress,” Jenna said on the show. “I was pouring sweat, I was panicking. I’m like, SOS.” 

“I’m like, Sheinelle, I need you to get here with the scissors ASAP. This is the type of friend I’ve learned I have. She left the dance floor, I believe they were playing Sean Paul, she left, she came,” she recalled.