Former morning show host Kathie Lee Gifford said she wouldn’t take her old job at the “Today” show nowadays thanks to people “editing” themselves and what they say.
Gifford reunited with her former co-host Hoda Kotb in an appearance on the NBC talk show “Today With Hoda and Jenna” on Tuesday morning. She was speaking with her daughter Cassidy about the latter’s upcoming Amazon Prime series “The Baxters” when Jenna Bush Hager asked whether Gifford would ever return to hosting the show again.
“No,” Gifford responded. “I have said so often, especially in the days when I was with Regis [Philbin], we talk for 23 minutes straight without a note…no writers, no anything. Back then, you weren’t editing yourself all the time. That’s the trouble today, too, with humor. When you’ve got to think about what you’re going to say, the fun goes out.”
Kathie Lee Gifford previously co-hosted NBC’s “Today” show with Hoda Kotb. (Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)
Gifford also spoke about how she enjoys more “authentic” relationships and lamented how, in today’s world, “everybody can put a filter on you.”
“I think God went to an awful lot of trouble to make us all completely unique. He did that with snowflakes, you know. And then we try to cookie cutter each other, and we try to mouth the same things everybody else is saying,” Gifford said.
She added, “If you’re going to live a life, live an authentic one.”
Kathie Lee Gifford appeared with her daughter Cassidy on “Today With Hoda and Jenna” Tuesday morning. (Michael Kovac/Getty Images for COTA)
Gifford made similar comments to US Weekly earlier this month, emphasizing that she had no interest in returning to her job as a daytime talk show host.
“I would not have lasted one day in today’s world on my show with Regis or my show with Hoda in this world where you got to watch what you say,” Gifford said. “I’ve made a living not watching what I say.”
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Gifford co-hosted “Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee” from 1985 to 2000. She joined the “Today” show with Kotb from 2005 until 2019.
Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford on the “Today” show on Wednesday, December 5, 2018. (Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images)
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