Entertainment TV 'Today' Anchors Celebrate Series' 70th Anniversary on NBC: 'There's No Place This Show Hasn't Gone' "I think the secret sauce why this show has lasted 70 years is its good company," Hoda Kotb said By Kelly Wynne Kelly Wynne Kelly Wynne has been a TV writer at PEOPLE digital since 2021. Her work has been seen in Newsweek, where she acted as a reality TV and true-crime writer, Atwood Magazine and her mental health blog, The Chronically. People Editorial Guidelines and Nicholas Rice Nicholas Rice Nicholas Rice is a Senior Editor for PEOPLE Magazine. He began working with the brand as an Editorial Intern in early 2020, before later transitioning to a freelance role, and then staff positions soon after. Nicholas writes and edits anywhere between 7 to 9 stories per day on average for PEOPLE, spanning across each vertical the brand covers. People Editorial Guidelines Published on January 14, 2022 09:50AM EST It's been 70 years of Today! NBC's beloved morning show celebrated a huge anniversary on Friday, and the show's anchors celebrated every minute. During the morning broadcast, anchors Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin and Carson Daly reflected on the iconic legacy of the series with a rich montage reflecting on the last seven decades that the show has been on the air. Looking back on times of tragedy and triumph in the world through the years, the footage featured clips of anchors past and present, as well as other milestone moments from the series' run. "I think the secret sauce why this show has lasted 70 years is its good company," Kotb, 57, explained as Melvin, 42, added, "There's no place this show hasn't gone." Savannah Guthrie Tests Positive for Breakthrough Case of COVID-19: 'Feeling Fine' The first episode of Today aired on Jan. 14, 1952. At the time, David Cunningham Garroway was the news show's leading anchor. He eventually worked alongside Barbara Walters, who he hired as a writer for the show. Other notable anchors in the show's history include Katie Couric, Hugh Downs and Tom Brokaw, among many others. Want to get the biggest stories from PEOPLE every weekday? Subscribe to our new podcast, PEOPLE Every Day, to get the essential celebrity, entertainment and human interest news stories Monday through Friday. On Thursday, Roker, 67, Kotb and Daly, 48, spoke with PEOPLE (the TV Show!)'s Jeremy Parsons ahead of the anniversary. Speaking about the highlights of traveling and filming on locations, Roker said, "What I love about those times, where we take trips as a show, is that we get to spend time with each other. During the show, there's the hustle and bustle, you're running around. But boy, when we're together for a prolonged period of time, that's when you realize we're so blessed." Meanwhile, Kotb reflected on the day she was named a co-anchor in 2018. Jenna Bush Hager Surprises Savannah Guthrie with Private Andrea Bocelli Show for Her 50th Birthday "I think it's one of those things that it was almost too big to dream about to, to really have it registered, that it was even a possibility," she said. "I don't say anything out loud unless it's all done, and I think to hear it was really, really meaningful. And to also be the first female team with Savannah was such a huge deal, which was in that moment we knew it was a big deal, but we didn't realize." NBC Kotb added, "One time a mom and her little daughter came up and they said, 'We just wanna tell you something, from now on my daughter's gonna know that watching two women anchor a show is completely normal. You just made that regular.' I felt like that was such a big moment." Daly, who joined the show in 2013, said "it's never lost on me to walk into that [show]. They say, if you love what you do, you've never worked a day in your life. And that saying's never been more true for me having to get to go to the Today show every day."