Hoda gets emotional imagining Jenna walking out to her new ‘Jenna & Friends’ theme song

The unveiling of the new theme song for TODAY with Jenna & Friends had Hoda Kotb dabbing tears of pride from the thought of Jenna Bush Hager embarking on a new chapter on the show.

With Hoda departing TODAY on Jan. 10, the fourth hour of TODAY will now be TODAY with Jenna & Friends, which means replacing the Hoda & Jenna theme song by Meghan Trainor with a new one.

Hoda became emotional on Jan. 6 as the duo listened to a snippet of the newly created intro song for TODAY with Jenna & Friends in one of their last few episodes together. The show will make its debut on Jan. 13 in the fourth hour of TODAY.

“Do you like it?” Jenna asked.

“You know what I was picturing?” Hoda told a tearful Jenna. “I’ll tell you what I was picturing. I was picturing you and how proud I’m going to be of you walking right here from that wall to this desk with that song.”

The countdown to Hoda’s final day on TODAY has brought out the emotions in the longtime friends and co-hosts. Hoda announced in September that she is leaving TODAY but remaining in the NBC family.

While Hoda will be replaced by Craig Melvin as co-anchor with Savannah Guthrie, the fourth hour will feature rotating guest co-hosts with Jenna until a permanent replacement is named.

Along with the new theme song, Jenna announced the first group of guest co-hosts who will join her in the week of Jan. 13. Actors Taraji P. Henson, Eva Longoria and Keke Palmer will appear on the fourth hour of TODAY to help Jenna start the new show.

“You know what that says? Heavy hitter, home run, wow,” Hoda said after Jenna announced the lineup. “This is a big week.”

“I feel like Hoda helped me manifest this,” Jenna said. “Nobody will ever fill this chair, but the three of them sure can try.”

Jenna also shared that her guest co-hosts for the week of Jan. 20 will be announced on the fourth hour of TODAY on Jan. 7.

“It’s a big Week 2,” Hoda said. “It’s multiple big weeks.”

“The tears will be stopped, I promise,” Jenna joked.