Craig Melvin Is Ready for the Ride

AFTER DECADES OF HARD WORK, THE NBC NEWSMAN AND FATHER OF TWO LANDS IN TODAY’S TOP ANCHOR SEAT: ‘I JUST DON’T WANT TO SCREW IT UP’

- By COLLEEN KRATOFIL,Photographs by ALLISON MICHAEL ORENSTEIN

Craig Melvin admits he’s generally not an anxious person. He doesn’t “really do excited” either. But reality is setting in as he welcomes People into his Westport, Conn., home just days before he begins his new job as Today’s coanchor alongside Savannah Guthrie. “I’m nervous,” he says. “The show is a beloved national institution that has been around for about 73 years. No one wants to be the person who’s at the helm of the ship when the ship finds ice.”

He may be feeling pressure, but he’s more than ready. Melvin, 45, got his start in high school as a teen correspondent at WIS-TV, a local station in South Carolina, and has worked at NBC for the past 13 years, first as a weekend anchor for MSNBC before joining Today as a news anchor and 3rd Hour Today host in 2018. “But I’ve never done this,” he says. “I’m anxious, but at the same time it’s the first time I’ve been this excited about anything outside the day I got married and the birth of my two children. I am beyond stoked.”

The newsman, who shares son Delano, 10, and daughter Sybil, 8, with wife Lindsay Czarniak, is taking over the position from longtime Today anchor Hoda Kotb, who said her farewells on Jan. 10 after 17 years at the show. “Those aren’t shoes you step into,” says Melvin. “We’ve put those shoes on the shelf, because that’s an impossible feat. I’m just going to wear my shoes and keep my fingers crossed.” Kotb has no doubt that the job is in good hands. “He is the natural perfect person,” she says. “I told him, ‘There’s nothing to be worried about. You have all the things that you need.’”