Despite their unhappy reactions to the bourbon, Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie and the rest of the NBC team showed a lot of excitement and encouragement toward Craig Melvin about his new job. Guthrie shared that the announcement among the staff led to people breaking into applause, and Kotb said this to Melvin:

Hoda Kotb and Craig Melvin had a secret code phrase for referring to him replacing her ahead of the official announcement on Today. Melvin, 45, told The New York Times in an interview published on Thursday,

By selecting Mr. Melvin, a familiar face on the show, network executives chose to go the steadiest route possible.