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Jenna Bush Hager Stuns Hoda Kotb With Unexpected TV Watching Habit

Meghan Roos
2 min read

Hoda Kotb learned some surprising new information about her Today with Hoda & Jenna co-host during an episode of their show that aired earlier this week.

As seen in a video clip that the show shared on Instagram on Thursday, Nov. 7, Kotb was talking with co-host Jenna Bush Hager about watching television when the former first daughter made her unexpected revelation.

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“We watch everything in captions, ‘cause we’re 90 years old,” Bush Hager, 42, said in an apparent reference to a TV habit she shares with her husband, Henry Hagar.

Kotb, 60, quickly backtracked and requested clarification before exclaiming, “You’re reading subtitles?!”

Bush Hager’s emphatic response ignited a wave of applause in front of their live studio audience, a reaction that inspired Bush Hager to stand up and grin. “Thank you everyone,” she said. “I’d like to say: Thank you for accepting me in my old age.”

“Wait, wait, wait. I have a question,” Kotb said. “Do you have the captions because you can’t hear it?” After Bush Hager confirmed that was, in fact, the reason, Kotb said she was “just checking.”

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“Is it distracting to be reading while the plot’s—” Kotb continued before cutting herself off. She then voiced sorrow for cinematographers, who “spend so much time working” on TV shows and movies despite viewer habits like Bush Hager’s that rely on “reading words.”

Bush Hager insisted that she doesn’t find subtitles distracting, explaining that they appear “at the very bottom” of the TV screen.

Following their debate, the show invited viewers to weigh in with their own opinions on using subtitles. Though both Bush Hager and Kotb found allies in the comment section, most people declared that they were “Right there with you Jenna!”

“Team PRO SUBTITLES here! ???♀?,” one fan wrote as another said they “Must have closed captions on.”

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“Subtitles 100% of the time!” another fan agreed.

“Yes to subtitles! Sometimes the music mixed in makes it hard to understand accents,” one viewer explained.

Others sided with Kotb, with one asking, “how can you ‘watch’ the program when you’re ‘reading’ the words at the bottom of the screen?” as another shared, “I’m with Hoda, take the subtitles off!”

“I find it very distracting ??.. I dread the day I may have to do it ??,” a detractor wrote as another said they only use subtitles if the show or movie they’re watching isn’t in English, “and then no choice.”

Next: Hoda Kotb Shares Subtle Message in First Post Since Election

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