What To Know
- Jenna Bush Hager was absent from the earlier hours of Today on Monday, August 10.
- Bush Hager was back in Studio 1A for that morning’s episode of Today With Jenna & Sheinelle.
- Bush Hager explained the reason for her brief absence, while Sheinelle Jones joked that people kept asking her about Bush Hager’s whereabouts.
Jenna Bush Hager started her week on Today with an unexpected change to her schedule.
Bush Hager’s typical morning on Today starts with her “Jenna’s Morning Boost” segment during the show’s 7 a.m. ET. hour. She later appears during the “Pop Start” segment, and greets fans out on 30 Rockefeller Plaza during the show’s 8 a.m. hour before co-hosting the fourth hour of Today with Sheinelle Jones at 10 a.m. ET.
Bush Hager noticeably missed the show’s 7 and 8 a.m. ET hours on Monday, August 10. She was one of several hosts missing, including Al Roker, Carson Daly, and Dylan Dreyer. NBC News and Weekend Today personalities filled in for the missing hosts, implying Bush Hager would also have a replacement during Today With Jenna & Sheinelle.
However, Bush Hager was back in Studio 1A by the time Jenna & Sheinelle‘s Monday episode began. “I’m straight off a flight, because I was in Maine with my family, and my little nephew got baptized, which was so sweet,” she explained to Jones.
Bush Hager recalled getting emotional as she read a poem by Mary Oliver during the service. “I was reading it, and it was in the church where I’ve gone with my grandparents my whole life, my kids were baptized there,” she said. “I mean, there’s something sort of evolutionary about looking up and seeing your twin sister hold this big ‘ole baby, and I couldn’t help it. I was kind of weepy.”
NBC
Bush Hager said it was “so fun to have all the cousins together” at the baptism, and thanked the Today crew for letting her miss the show’s earlier hours.
Jones joked that she’s “not Jenna’s keeper” while noting that people asked her about Bush Hager’s whereabouts all morning. “[They were like,] ‘Where’s Jenna? Sheinelle, where’s Jenna? Sheinelle, is Jenna gonna make it?’” she quipped. “And I’m like, ‘Well, she didn’t text me, so that means it’s gonna be just fine.’”
Bush Hager gushed that people asking Jones about her means they’ve been “cemented as a pair.” She added, “But then I came in, and I was like, ‘Oh, no.’ But you know what? It’s Monday. We’re all chill.”
Bush Hager took over Kathie Lee Gifford‘s role as a co-host on the fourth hour of Today in 2019. She hosted the series with Hoda Kotb for several years before Kotb exited Today in January 2025. Bush Hager went on to lead the series, retitled Today With Jenna & Friends, with a series of celebrity guest hosts before Jones took over as her permanent co-host in January.
Both Bush Hager and Jones were absent from Today on Friday, August 7, as Jenna & Sheinelle typically airs a prerecorded episode on Fridays. Friday’s episode, however, featured Sunday Today‘s Willie Geist filling in for Jones.
Today, Weekdays, 7 am/6c, NBC
Today With Jenna & Sheinelle, Weekdays, 10 am, NBC