Sitting behind the TODAY desk is nothing new for Craig Melvin, but the longtime co-host started a new career chapter after taking over as co-anchor of TODAY opposite Savannah Guthrie.

“Outside of my wedding day on October 15th, 2011, outside of the birth of our two children, it’s the most excited I’ve ever been about anything,” Craig shares with TODAY.com. “It’s also the most nervous I’ve ever been about anything.”

He joins the ranks of TODAY show luminaries including Bryant Gumbel, Katie Couric and Hoda Kotb, whose seat he filled after the longtime host embarked on the next chapter of her own journey.

“There are very few venerable institutions left in television,” Craig tells TODAY.com. “But ours is a little show that’s been around for more than 70 years. And in that 70 years, there’s only been a handful of hosts. It’s not lost on me that I’m joining this exclusive club.”

How does he feel about filling the shoes of his predecessors?

“I want to do my level best to make the team proud,” Craig says. “I get the chance now to stand on the shoulders of a few hundred people who work for the show at NBC News and I want to make them proud.”

 

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Craig says he also hopes to simply “stay the course,” be a “good partner to Savannah” and most of all, be there for the TODAY audience.

“I want our viewers and listeners to continue to trust me and come to us every morning. I don’t want to betray that trust,” he says.

As part of maintaining that trust, Craig says he plans to continue doing what he’s been doing much of his career, which is be himself.

“I can’t remember who gave me the advice, but it was one of my colleagues who said, ‘Sometimes when people get big new jobs or do some sort of a change, they feel like they have to change.’ And if you think about it objectively, that’s ridiculous.’”

“‘If doing what you’ve done has gotten you to where you are, once you get there, why would you change it up? Why not continue to be the person that you’ve always been? Do the things you’ve always done, if that’s what’s led to any sort of modicum of success for you professionally,’” says Craig. Craig Melvin got a surprise visit from his family on his first day as co-anchor.Nathan Congleton / TODAY
“When they said that, I was like, ‘You know what? That’s a good point. I’m not changing. I’m not going to really change anything.’”

While Craig plans to keep things as is, there is one new detail in the form of a tie his wife, Lindsay Czarniak, and their two children, Delano, 10, and Sybil, 8, picked out for him ahead of his first day on the job.

“I do want to wear a new tie so that years from now, when we go back and look at that video from my first day, I’ll remember that,” he says.

Calling the accessory his “First-Day-Of-School” tie, Craig says that Lindsay chose it because yellow is her favorite color, even if it might not necessarily be his. Even so, “it matches the socks,” he points out, showing them off.

As for what’s next for the new co-anchor of TODAY, Craig says he hopes to lean into stories and topics he feels passionate about.

“I’m looking forward to traveling more and taking viewers and listeners and readers to places that they might not otherwise go,” Craig says, which is something he’s already been doing as an Olympic correspondent and NBC reporter for nearly 14 years.

“I’m not going to rest on my laurels now,” he says. “I’m going to continue to crisscross the country telling stories.”