Hoda Kotb’s surprise decision to leave her role on NBC’s Today show after 26 years was reportedly partly a result of being asked to take a pay cut by the network.

The broadcast journalist, who turned 60 last month, is thought to have been receiving a salary of more than $20m a year.

Puck News reported that NBC executives “made clear to her agents that such stratospheric contracts were no longer justifiable given the industry’s inexorable decline.”

The Independent has contacted representatives for Kotb and NBC for comment.

Ratings have been falling for morning news shows across the board for several years. For context, a decade ago Today was able to bring in upwards of 4.6 million daily viewers. This month, the show averaged a little over 2.5 million.

Last Thursday, Kotb announced her departure during an episode of the long-running morning show.

“I realized that it was time for me to turn the page at 60, and to try something new,” she said. “I remembered standing outside looking at these beautiful bunch of people with these gorgeous signs, and I thought, ‘This is what the top of the wave feels like for me.’ And I thought it can’t get better, and I decided that this is the right time for me to kind of move on.”

Hoda Kotb attending a Louis Vuitton event in Paris in July 2024She added that spending more time with her young daughters, Haley, seven, and Hope, five, was also an important part of her decision.

“Obviously I had my kiddos late in life, and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have,” she said. “I feel like we only have a finite amount of time.

“And so, with all that being said, this is the hardest thing in the world,” Kotb said.

She clarified that she will continue hosting the Today show alongside co-anchor Savannah Guthrie through January 1, 2025.

“It’s kind of a big deal for me,” Kotb said. “I’ve been practicing so I wouldn’t cry, but anyway, I did.”

Kotb has been an integral part of NBC News for nearly three decades, having first joined the network in 1998 as a correspondent on its weekly nighttime show Dateline.

In 2008, she moved on to co-host the fourth hour of the Today show with Kathie Lee Gifford and then Jenna Bush Hager in 2019.

After NBC fired Today show host Matt Lauer in 2017 following accusations of sexual misconduct, Kotb stepped in alongside Guthrie as a temporary replacement. Weeks later, her role became permanent, as viewers responded well to her and Guthrie.

Speaking to the New York Times, Guthrie commended Kotb’s decision, saying: “It takes such guts to leave a place where you’re so comfortable, so beloved. There’s nothing rash about this.”

She added that she was “super proud” and “super heartbroken” about the news.