Craig Melvin was a familiar face on the Today show for seven years before he replaced Hoda Kotb in January, but according to his mother, he could have had a very different career.
The 46-year-old credits his ability to talk to people for helping him to become an effective journalist, but his mom, Betty Jo, thought his gift of gab would lead him towards another career path.
Alternative career
In a new joint interview with Garden and Gun, Craig's mom revealed that he talked so much as a child, his elementary school teachers would often complain to her.
She also said that family members often found Craig pacing his grandmother's front porch in Cayce, South Carolina, riffing on sermons, which led her to believe her son would become a preacher.
"I truly thought he was going to do preaching," Betty Jo recalled to the publication. "Because after church on Sundays, he would come back home and do whatever the pastor did."
Craig's abundant energy led to Betty Jo enrolling him in several extracurricular activities, including Little League, church choirs, and school orchestra, before Craig started entering local oratorical contests, which required him to deliver speeches on assigned topics in front of strangers.
While still in high school, Craig auditioned for Our Generation, a young reporters' segment on WIS-TV, Columbia's NBC affiliate, and he was hired immediately.
"I had spent my entire life up until that point running my mouth," he wrote of his early on-screen experiences. "This was just more talking, on camera."
While Craig was finding his feet and discovering his talent and passion for journalism, he was dealing with a difficult home life as his father, Lawrence, battled addiction.
Lawrence entered a treatment facility for his alcoholism in 2018, and he has been sober ever since, rebuilding his relationship with his wife, children, and grandchildren.
"You can't undo the things you missed out on," Lawrence once told his son. "You just have to try to better yourself, to do better."
Craig admitted how his once-strained relationship with his father ultimately helped shape him into a more empathetic and insightful journalist.
"We're all broken in some way," Craig said. "Some people are better at masking it than others, but we're all just walking around broken."
He added: "I'm a work in progress, and I'll never be the person that most people think that I am."
Craig is doing something right as he was promoted to lead anchor and Savannah Guthrie's new co-host, on November 14, 2024, some weeks after Hoda announced she would be departing the show to spend more time with family.
During the emotional, exciting announcement, he shared: "I am beyond excited and grateful," noting that it is "the latest in a long line of blessings."
Craig has had ties to NBC since his time with their affiliate WIS-TV in Columbia, South Carolina, and returned upon his graduation from college.
He officially joined the Today show as a news anchor in August 2018, and two months later, he was named co-host of Today's Third Hour before being made permanent host in January 2019. He began his role as Savannah's co-anchor in January 2025.