Jenna Bush Hager Reveals ‘Today’ Show Banned ‘Southern’ Phrase

NBC has certain rules it requires its news broadcasters to abide by, and that extends to colloquial phrases, which Jenna Bush Hager learned firsthand when she originally joined the network.

Speaking on Today with Hoda & Jenna on Monday (December 2), Bush Hager and Kotb opened up about what changes they had to make when they first arrived at NBC. According to Bush Hager, who started as a correspondent in 2009, there was one specific Southern phrase the network banned her from using.

“[They were like], ‘Hey, y’all’ isn’t for the whole country,’” she said, per People. “And I was like, ‘Well, but it’s who I am.’ It’s so weird, and this happens in life too. If you have friends and then, all of a sudden, you’re acting not who you are, and you’re like, ‘Wait,’ something in your gut feels wrong.”

She continued, “When they said, ‘You can’t say y’all,’ in my gut, I was like, ‘But why? We have to pretend to be news people?’ Because whenever you pretend to be a news person, I felt like I was acting. And we all know from [our Titanic Halloween skit], I’m not a great actor. When you try to pretend you’re somebody else, it feels crazy.”

Kotb, who joined NBC in 1998 as a correspondent for Dateline, agreed with her co-host, adding, “If you don’t fit, they want you to wear something a certain way, cut your hair a certain way, speak a certain way.”

Eventually, both hosts let go of that pressure, which Kotb said can make someone feel like they’re “losing who you are,” though she explained that it took “a long time.”

Kotb’s time with NBC is winding down as she is set to retire from the Today show on January 10. The long-time host announced her retirement back in September, revealing she is hoping to spend more time with her two children, whom she adopted in 2017 and 2019.

“I had my kiddos later in life and I was thinking that they deserve a bigger piece of my time pie that I have,” she told viewers on the Today show in September. “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.”