JENNA BUSH HAGER JUST MADE A MAJOR CAREER MOVE — AND VIEWERS DIDN’T SEE IT COMING 👀✨

After 16 years as a familiar face on Today, Jenna is stepping into a powerful new role, marking one of the biggest shifts of her career. Fans are calling it well-earned, emotional, and long overdue — and the details are already sparking major buzz.

A new chapter begins… and it’s bigger than anyone expected 👇

Jenna Bush Hager Unveils New Role at NBC After 16 Years on Today

Originally appeared on E! Online

Jenna Bush Hager is starting the new year with not only a new costar, but also a new position.

The Today With Jenna & Sheinelle cohost revealed she is producing her first TV show for NBC—a drama called Protection—alongside Quantico creator and showrunner Josh Safran and Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico executive producer Ben Spector.

As for what the show will be about? The former first daughter—whose parents are former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush—explained the plot hits close to home.

“It’s about different levels of law enforcement, some based on Secret Service,” Jenna told her new cohost Sheinelle Jones during the Jan. 14 episode of the morning show. “So, y’all know I know about that.”

The 44-year-old added, “So, we’re hopefully going to start shooting this spring, cross your fingers, y’all. I’m so excited.”

The Daytime Emmy winner—mom to Mila, 12, Poppy, 10, and Hal, 6, with husband Henry Hager—also explained that she was heavily involved during the pitch process because she’s so thrilled by the pilot episode’s storyline.

“I joined all the pitches because every time, to watch these sometimes jaded executives’—not all of you, not all of you—faces drop with the twist,” she continued. “The twist is so good.”

After working as a public school teacher for four years in Washington, D.C., Jenna joined the Today show family in 2009 as a correspondent. She later took over the morning show’s fourth hour cohosting duties alongside Hoda Kotb after Kathie Lee Gifford left the show in 2019.

Jenna Bush Hager

Nathan Congleton/NBC

Since then, Jenna launched the Today show’s book club Read With Jenna and inked a first-look deal with NBC-owned Universal Studio Group, with Protection marking the first production from her company.

Noting her disbelief at producing a scripted TV show, Jenna said during the Jan. 14 Today episode, “Who knew I would ever do something like this, ladies and gentlemen?”

To learn more about Jenna and the rest of the Today show family, keep reading…

Sheinelle Jones

<p>Sheinelle Jones</p>

The cohost of the fourth hour of Today shares son Kayin as well as twins Uche and Clara with her late husband Uche Ojeh, who passed away in May 2025 after a courageous battle with brain cancer.

“With all three of my children, I try to show them that they’re ALL a team, and they have to take care of each other,” Sheinelle wrote in a 2015 essay for Today. “At the same time, I’m learning that they each like to know they’re special on their own.”

Craig Melvin

<p>Craig Melvin</p>

Three years after the anchor married fellow broadcaster Lindsay Czarniak in 2011, he earned his most cherished title yet: father.

And now, he seizes every opportunity to gush about their son Delano and daughter Sybil.

“When I wake up in the morning,” Melvin said to his son during a May 2024 episode of Today, “part of the reason I work so hard is for you and your sister.”

Jenna Bush Hager

<p>Jenna Bush Hager</p>

The Today with Jenna & Sheinelle cohost and her husband Henry Hager are proud parents to kids Mila, Poppy and Hal.

As she put it during a March 2025 episode of the morning show, “I’m pretty sure I’ve come to terms that three, even though it’s an imperfect number, it’s the perfect number for our household.”

Hoda Kotb

<p>Hoda Kotb</p>

“Another Halloween in the books,” wrote the former host as she celebrated the day with her daughter Haley Joy.

She is also mom to daughter Hope Catherine.

Lester Holt

<p>Lester Holt</p>

The former NBC Nightly News anchor shares sons Stefan Holt and Cameron Holt with his wife Carol Hagen.

But more recently, he became a proud “granddude” to three grandchildren: Henry, Samuel and James.

“When my daughter-in-law was pregnant with her first baby … she said, ‘Well, what do you guys want to be called?’” Holt said on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2021. “I said, ‘I think I want to be ‘Granddude’ because ‘grand,’ it bows to the fact that I’m older. But ‘dude’ says, ‘I still got a little bit. I still got a little,’ you know?”

Carson Daly

<p>Carson Daly</p>

In 2020, the anchor and his wife Siri Pinter welcomed their fourth child, Goldie. The little one joined the couple’s older kids Jackson, Etta and London.

Kathie Lee

Kathie Lee

Hoda’s former cohost is a loving mommy to her own two children, Cassidy Gifford and Cody Gifford, with her late husband Frank Gifford.

Savannah Guthrie

Savannah Guthrie

The TV personality is a mom to two little ones, Vale Guthrie Feldman and Charles “Charley” Max Feldman, with her husband Mike Feldman.

Al Roker

Al Roker

The anchor and his wife Deborah Roberts are parents to Leila Roker and Nicholas Albert Roker.

Willie Geist

Willie Geist

The anchor of Sunday Today has been married to his wife Christina Geist since 2003. They’re parents to two children, George William Geist and Lucie Joy Geist.

For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App