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Kathie Lee Gifford revealed what she gifted Sheinelle Jones in honor of her new role on Today With Jenna & Sheinelle.
Gifford and Hoda Kotb surprised Jones and Jenna Bush Hager during their first episode as Today cohosts.
Gifford famously cohosted the fourth hour of Today with Kotb from 2008 to 2019.
In addition to passing the fourth hour of Today hosting torch to Sheinelle Jones, Kathie Lee Gifford surprised the show’s new cohost with some special gifts.
“I left a lot of Chanel in her dressing room today, boy,” Gifford shared in an interview with Entertainment Tonight posted on Tuesday, January 13. “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 cohost, Hoda Kotb, surprised Jones for her first day as Jenna Bush Hager‘s new fourth hour of Today cohost on the debut episode of Today With Jenna & Sheinelle on Monday, January 12.
Gifford and Kotb famously cohosted the fourth hour of Today, formerly titled Today With Kathie Lee & Hoda, from 2008 until Gifford’s departure in 2019. Bush Hager took over for the former host and hosted the show, Today With Hoda & Jenna, with Kotb until her departure last year. Bush Hager continued to lead the fourth hour, retitled Today With Jenna & Friends, with celebrity guest hosts.
Jones made her Jenna & Friends guest-hosting debut in September 2025, the same month she returned to Today following the death of her husband, Uche Ojeh, that May. Last month, it was announced that Jones would become Bush Hager’s permanent cohost.
Gifford told the outlet that it’s “fun” to watch Bush Hager and Jones follow in her and Kotb’s footsteps. “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,” she recalled. “It worked for a long, long time for us.”
Referencing her longtime gig on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, Gifford continued, “Interestingly, Regis [Philbin] 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.”
Kotb, for her part, said that Monday’s show will be a “lifetime moment” that Bush Hager and Jones will remember “forever,” adding, “There’s only one first day, and to be able to be there was the coolest.”
When asked about their first impressions of Jones — who first joined the show as a Weekend Today host in 2014 — Kotb said, “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].”
Gifford went on to note, “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.”
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