Hoda Kotb revealed that she was in “trouble” after letting some confidential information slip on Today.
You might have watched a segment where Hoda, 60, announced that she and cohost Jenna Bush Hager were coming out with their second Christmas song on Today on Tuesday, September 17.
“We actually are at work on our second Christmas song … We’re going to drop our second single,” Hoda told her colleagues during the early morning hours of Today.
She said that the song she and Jenna, 42, were “considering” was written by Meghan Trainor.
But apparently, that news was not supposed to be announced just yet, especially not without Jenna by her side.
Later on in the episode, the Hope Is a Rainbow author was eventually joined by Jenna, who said, “You dropped a secret of ours, in the earlier hours, and I feel deceived.”
Hoda said that the news slipped out because she had heard that Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon were coming out with a Christmas song too.
“I did not like to hear about other people having a Christmas song, and I wanted them to know that we too were working on one,” the Oklahoma native said. “I couldn’t help it. Sorry!”
The following day, the Today cohosts discussed the fact that Jennifer Hudson was coming out with a new holiday anthem called “Let There Be Joy” in partnership with Hallmark. Dylan Dreyer playfully asked Hoda, “Is that going to go up against your song?”
The longtime broadcaster, who is a mom to daughters Haley and Hope, admitted during the Wednesday, September 18, episode that she was supposed to keep the song under wraps.
“I got into trouble yesterday because apparently it was a secret,” Hoda shared, to which Savannah Guthrie replied, “Well, not anymore.”
But Hoda wasn’t done talking about the subject, adding, “Now everyone’s mad at me, please don’t make me repeat it!”
While the news was shared prematurely, it seems like both Hoda and Jenna are excited to debut the song this holiday season. Planned or not, fans were also thrilled to hear that Hoda and Jenna will once again be putting their musical talents on display with a new holiday tune.
This will mark the second time Hoda and Jenna have released a holiday song in their five years of cohosting Today With Hoda & Jenna. They teamed up with vocal coach Cheryl Porter last year on “A Carefree Christmas.” It was accompanied by a festive music video with tons of Christmas spirit, colorful decor and Christmas cheer.
“Cheryl is a person who can teach anybody to sing. She has her own technique,” Hoda said at the time of their first song’s release. “She is like joy personified and she ran us through the paces – had us try to learn.”
Jenna continued the praise of Cheryl, saying that the song “will sound good because of her.” They joked about reaching the top of the music charts with the song. “’If we do, it’s a Christmas miracle,” Hoda quipped.
