How Kathie Lee Gifford Honored the Lady Who Followed in Her Footsteps

Published: January 19, 2026

By Michaela Gordoni

Sheinelle Jones just started to host the fourth hour of the TODAY show, and former host Kathie Lee Gifford gave her some special gifts to commemorate the occasion.

“I left a lot of Chanel in her dressing room today, boy,” Gifford, a Teddy Bear Award winner®, shared in an interview with Entertainment Tonight. “I went to Saks Fifth Avenue yesterday, and yes, I did. I paid for it all on my own credit card. All right, it’s a write-off, but who cares? It’s the thought that matters.”

Gifford and her former TODAY co-host, Hoda Kotb, surprised Jones on her first day with Jenna Bush Hager on Monday, Jan. 12, TV Insider reported.

Gifford and Kotb previously hosted the same fourth hour together.

Jones previously joined Bush Hager on JENNA & FRIENDS in September 2025, for the first time since her husband, Uche Ojeh, died in May.

https://youtu.be/NiR_t4_Gccc

Gifford said of her hour with Kotb, “I never thought I’d ever come back to daytime TV, and because of one year with her, I said, ‘Okay, maybe. I really like her. She’s fun.’ And it worked. It worked for a long, long time for us.”

Gifford also had a show with Regis Philbin called LIVE WITH REGIS AND KATHIE LEE.

“Interestingly, Regis and I never had an unkind word between us in all those years. Hoda and I never did, and I don’t think Sheinelle and Jenna will, either. It takes that kind of friendship to last,” she said.

Kotb said Monday will be a “lifetime moment” that Bush Hager and Jones will remember “forever.” She added, “There’s only one first day, and to be able to be there was the coolest.”

Kotb recalled the first day she met Jones in 2014. “I remember meeting her, and I thought she was just, like, a bundle of joy. She was oozing optimism and oozing just, like — you know when someone has an easy smile?”

“And she had this thing that you can’t teach, which is a spark. It’s like she had it already. It just needed to have the right environment [to grow],” she said.

Gifford added, “She wasn’t, of course, aware yet of where she was actually going to fit in, but I didn’t sense fear from her at all. I sensed such excitement.”

Kotb explained that a rotation of hosts is how it should be.

“This is learning, by the way, at the seat of the master,” Kotb said. “This is how it works, I learned from [Gifford] and then I was scared to go off on my own, and then I met [Bush Hager] and I was so proud the day you walked out. I’ll never forget it. And now you are welcoming [Jones] and it’s perfect.”

When Kotb heard that Jones would join Jenna on the show, she called Jones.

Jones recalled what Kotb told her: “She goes, ‘I promise you,’ she goes, ‘let’s remember this moment, you’re gonna talk about how this was a moment that changed your career and it was the best decision, for your kids, for you. Working with Jenna, it’s gonna be better than you could ever imagine.’”

It looks like Jones has some wonderful friends cheering her on as she begins this new endeavor.

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