The TV host also weighed in on the future format of ‘Today With Jenna & Friends.’

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Carson Daly revealed that Scarlett Johansson can’t be brought on as Jenna Bush Hager‘s full-time co-host on the fourth hour of The Today Show for one specific reason.

When asked if he knows who will join Bush Hager, 43, as the show’s permanent co-host, Daly, 52, told Us Weekly, “I ask all the time.”

He then reflected on the show’s current format, in which Bush Hager has a new co-host each week on Today With Jenna & Friends. “I think they want to keep this rotating thing going,” Daly, who also works as featured anchor on the morning show, explained.

“I’ve loved a lot [of the co-hosts],” Daly said of who he would like to have fill the position permanently. “I loved Dwayne Wade. I thought he was awesome. Every time Erin Andrews is on, I’m like, ‘She’s amazing.’ Scarlett Johansson is everybody’s favorite, but she happens to be Hollywood’s most expensive actor. We can’t afford her, but she loves doing it.”

While he admitted to being a fan of many of the co-hosts, Daly said he’s happy with the way the show is currently running. “Jenna’s had a lot of really good people,” he said. “I kind of like the rotating cast. It keeps things fresh.”

Bush Hager has been hosting the show with rotating guest hosts ever since her longtime co-host, Hoda Kotb, left the Today Show in January. While Craig Melvin replaced Kotb, 61, as Savannah Guthrie’s news co-anchor in the show’s earlier hour, Bush Hager is still on the hunt to find her permanent co-host.

After Kotb announced her decision to leave NBC in September 2024, she assured Bush Hager that she wouldn’t have trouble finding a good co-host. “Whoever sits in this seat is going to have the easiest job in the world ‘cause they’re sitting next to you,” she said at the time. “The only thing they have to do is not laugh so hard they pee their pants. That’s it. They just have to hang on. You are this bright light, you always have been, and it’s your turn.”