Something fishy was going on Today.
“Today” show viewers were left baffled when Willie Geist, the anchor of “Sunday Today,” filled in for Hoda Kotb during “Today With Hoda & Jenna” on Wednesday.
Geist, 48, and co-host Jenna Bush Hager, 42, made no mention of Kotb’s absence from the program despite the 59-year-old anchor being present for the first two hours of the NBC morning show.
“Not only can Willie host all the shows on television, and pull out my chair … but he also is a star,” Bush Hager gushed before turning the conversation to Geist’s most recent role on “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Continuing to praise her co-host’s acting abilities, Bush Hager proclaimed that she could see Geist becoming “a soap star” once he decided to leave the show.
“I think you could be on, like, ‘The Young and the Restless,’” the former First Daughter quipped.
Taking the comment in stride, Geist admitted that he was “too old now” to do anything soap opera-related but suggested that he could potentially be on “”The Golden Bachelor’ next season, something like that” before recalling that he was already married.
The Post reached out to both Kotb and NBC for comment.
Two viewers were quick to notice and comment on Kotb’s absence.
“Where’s Hoda,” one user asked on X (formerly Twitter).
“All that and bonus Geist,” a second fan said.
Kotb, who has been sharing hosting duties with Bush Hager since 2008, was also absent all of last week as well, though it was revealed that she was taking some time off to be with her kids Haley, 7, and Hope, 4 during their spring break.
The news anchor, who shares both daughters with ex-fiancé Joel Schiffman, posted a photo of herself and her girls on Instagram on the beaches of Mexico’s Riviera Maya.
“Beautiful days… magical nights,” she captioned the slideshow of photos.
“It felt restful and great and amazing,” Kotb shared on Monday’s episode of her talk show. “I had an actual vacation.”
The long-time news anchor was also gone for several weeks last year due to a “family health matter.”
“We can tell you that Hoda has a family health matter that she’s been dealing with,” fellow anchor Craig Melvin stated at the time.
Kotb later revealed that her absence was due to Hope being hospitalized with an undisclosed condition.
“It’s really tricky, because I don’t want Hope to get labeled,” she said to People earlier this month. “She’s a kid who is so vibrant, and most days everything is totally fine. I don’t want people to look at her differently.”
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