‘Hoda and Jenna’ has staff fill in as studio audience

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NBC News‘ “Today with Hoda and Jenna and Friends” continued its Thursday and Friday practice of using Megyn Kelly’s former set in Studio 6A — but probably should have been retitled “Today with Hoda and Jenna and Staff.”

Read the latest about TV studio audience changes due to coronavirus.

Back on Feb. 7, 2020, NBC announced that the fourth hour of “Today,” known as “Today with Hoda and Jennawould start originating from Studio 6A with a live studio audience.

The show would unofficially be renamed “Today with Hoda and Jenna and Friends” but still appear without the “and Friends” reference on schedule grids and ratings.

The format went on as planned for several weeks — but it has now been halted as NBC announced “Today” and other New York based programming would start dropping studio audiences due to coronavirus concerns.

For March 12, 2020, the first audience edition since the ban was announced, co-anchors Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager still originated from Studio 6A, but with a smattering of it staffers seated throughout the sloped audience risers.

The “Friends” logo was still shown on the video wall background behind Kotb and Hager, but the open was switched to the one normally used Monday through Wednesday for the show.