SNL Season 50 premiere addresses Hoda Kotbs Today exit with a Matt Lauer dig

Weekend update from Rockefeller Center.“Saturday Night Live” had plenty of material to report about during its Season 50 premiere — thanks to its own network.Colin Jost addressed Hoda Kotb’s decision to leave the “Today” show during his Weekend Update segment alongside Michael Che on Sept.28.The journalist, 60, announced the news days prior, noting although she is leaving the show after 26 years she will stay in the NBC family in an unspecified role.

She will remain on “Today” alongside Savannah Guthrie, Jenna Bush Hager and more until early 2025.“Hoda Kotb announced that she will be leaving the Today show,” Jost, 42, began.“Hoda says she will remember her time on the show fondly, and not at all.”The comedian then took a swipe at Matt Lauer, who was fired from the news program in November 2017 amid allegations about his behavior.

A photo of Lauer with Kotb’s hair photoshopped on him then appeared behind Jost.“Hota Kotb will be replaced by — oh no! — Matt Lauer-be,” he joked.Lauer, 66, was let go over numerous claims of sexual assault and discrimination, which he denied.He also spoke out when former NBC News colleague Brooke Nevils told investigative journalist Ronan Farrow that Lauer raped her while the two were in Russia for the 2014 Sochi Olympics.“In a new book, it is alleged that an extramarital, but consensual, sexual encounter I have previously admitted having, was in fact an assault,” Lauer said in a letter, per his lawyer, Libby Locke, in 2019.

“It is categorically false, ignores the facts, and defies common sense.”In 2017, it was Kotb and Guthrie who announced the shocking news of his departure at the top of “Today.”“This is a very tough morning for both of us.I’ve known Matt for 15 years and I’ve loved him as a friend and as a colleague, and again just like you were saying Savannah, it’s hard to reconcile what we are hearing with the man who we know.

Who walks in this building every single day,” ...