Jenna Bush Hager Calls Hoda Kotb Out In A Lie On ‘Today’: “I’m Sure You Are”

Hoda Kotb kicked off Friday’s broadcast of Today by highlighting a new article about Jenna Bush Hager’s book club, Read With Jenna.

After the co-hosts discussed Bush Hager’s passion for reading — during which she looked back on the time Diane Sawyer almost helped her meet one of her idols, Toni Morrison — Kotb tried to segue away from the discussion by promising to read the article later. But, Bush Hager wasn’t exactly buying it.

“I love it, I’m gonna read the whole thing later,” Kotb said.

Bush Hager turned to the camera with a playful wink as she responded, “I’m sure you are.”

Kotb laughed as she tried to defend herself. “It’s multiple pages you can’t do it in one sitting,” Kotb said as she flipped through the pages of the magazine. “Oh right, well, it’s just one [page].”

Bush Hager responded with a laugh, “No, no, it’s just about one page.”

The Today hosts celebrated the five-year anniversary of Read With Jenna earlier this year with a look back on the book club’s success. Kotb shared some impressive stats about the book club before she later shockingly revealed that she’s only read two of the 63 books that Read With Jenna has showcased over the years.

“How many have you read?!” Bush Hager demanded of her co-host during the broadcast.

While Kotb sheepishly confessed she only read one, Bush Hager appeared to remember that she had read at least two books from the book club over the years. But Kotb couldn’t even remember the title of the book correctly!

“Read Pants On Fire from the early days, it was really good,” she told viewers.

“It’s called Nothing to See Here, it’s not even called Pants on Fire,” Bush Hager swiftly corrected, causing them both to laugh. The Today hosts were discussing the 2019 novel Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, which went on to become a NYT bestseller.

“It is one of my favorite books, but it isn’t called Pants On Fire,” she added.

Today with Hoda & Jenna airs on weekdays at 10/9c on NBC.