Ann Curry, now ex-anchor of "Today" show, gave her farewell speech for leaving her post after almost two decades.
Savannah Guthrie, 40, was selected to become Curry's replacement in the show, whose official debut will take place on Monday, July 9, according to NBC.
The "Today" was surpassed by ABC's "Good Morning America" in the the first half of the year, which was first time since 1996. New York Times reported that "Today" show's executive Jim Bell favored Gutherie. Curry will now move on to become NBC's anchor-at-large.
Watch the video of Ann Curry's farewell and the transcript below:
Curry: This isn't going to be easy but this is going to be my last morning as a regular co-host of Today. I will still be part of the Today show family, but I'll have a new title and a new role. This is not as I expected, to ever leave this couch after 15 years, but I am so grateful especially to each and everyone of you who watched.
Matt and I and everyone who sits at this couch, we often call ourselves a family, but you are the real today show family. You are the reason why I have ventured to dangerous places, interviewed dictators, and jumped off of planes and often bridges, and climbed mountains and landed on the South Pole and convinced the Dalai Lama to come live to our studio. I have loved you and I've wanted to give you the world, and I still do.
They are giving me some fancy new titles which essentially mean that I am going to get tickets to every big story we want to cover with a terrific team of my choosing. We are going to go all over the world and all over this country at a time when this country and world needs clarity.
We are going to do great work I hope and we are being given the chance to do the work that most of us got into journalism to do.
These stories are going to air on all the platforms of NBC today, including here on Today.
After all these years I don't know if I can sleep in anymore. I'm not even sure I can but I know that whichever time I wake up I will be missing you, believing in you, I love all of you, especially all of you who are behind the scenes and behind the cameras. I love you guys. Mark and Anthony, and David. I love all of our brilliant producers and for all of you who saw me as a groundbreaker, I'm so sorry I couldn't carry the ball over the finish line. But man I did try, so for all of you who watched, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me touch yours.
Thank you for your tweets and your emails and for your support and I will keep trying and I'm so sorry for turning into a sob sister this morning but I hope you will wish me well.
Matt: I'll start for the group and just say what we have a thousand times. You have the biggest heart in the business.
You put it on display every single day in this studio and you have for what, almost 20 years.
The way you care about people comes through in every single story you report. There could be a thousand examples, a few that we want to remind our viewers about.
I will never forget the way you handled the story of those American hikers who were held captive in Iran in the ordeal they went through and their families went through.
And the interview you did with president Ahmadinejad that because of your humanity he chose you to tell that he would be releasing those hikers in just a couple days. It was an extraordinary television and it was your reporting at its best.
Curry: Thank you.
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