'Today' Cast Members Toast Beloved, Longtime Colleague on His Final Day

TODAY — Pictured: Carson Daly; Craig Melvin, Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 — (Photo by: Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)

Hoda Kotb, Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, and the rest of the Today crew are saying goodbye to one of their longtime colleagues.

The anchors gathered together during the Friday, March 29 broadcast to welcome NBC News reporter Harry Smith to the Today Show one last time, toasting their beloved colleague on his final day.

After 25 years with CBS, the journalist joined the team at NBC to contribute to Rock Center with Brian Williams. Upon its cancellation, he continued contributing regularly across the network's platforms and filled in as necessary on NBC Nightly News. On the Sunday edition of Today, he hosted a weekly segment called "Sundays with Harry."

But now, Smith is leaving the big city to teach a course on "curiosity" at his alma mater, Central College in Pell, Iowa.

As the cast gathered on the couch on Friday's episode, he told them, "I have nothing but gratitude; every time I would come on this show I was always welcomed so generously, so generously. I’ve had just this unbelievable array of phenomenal experiences since coming to NBC."

They all got teary-eyed as Guthrie honored his talents, telling viewers how he wrote his "remarkable" stories "with such elegance and...beauty [that] no one can match" before begging him not to leave.

Smith then recapped some of his most memorable features throughout his tenure with the show, flashing through clips of his many, many interviews, which he called a "potpourri of extraordinary people."

"Harry, you have to write," Guthrie added before the full video ended. "It's your mission; it's your gift. You are a wonderful colleague; we love you; we will miss you every single day."

The group clinked their champagne flutes together in a toast as Harry thanked them for their kind words, including "the people behind the scenes here who make everything so much better."

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