Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford Surprise Sheinelle Jones by Passing on the 'Wine Torch' During First Episode of 'TODAY With Jenna & Sheinelle'

Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford passed the baton to the next co-host of Today’s fourth hour.

The former hosts, donned in Olympic track jackets, handed Sheinelle Jones a “wine torch” with fake flames during the premiere episode of TODAY With Jenna & Sheinelle on Monday, January 12.

Jones was taken back by the surprise appearance and got emotional as the ladies sat down with the new anchor and Jenna Bush Hager for a candid conversation.

“Can we just say how awesome you two look together, how amazing this day already is?” Kotb gushed. “You all look so sweet together.”

Jones recalled watching Gifford on the television screen and claimed she “invented the genre.”

“Is Kelly Ripa here?” the former Today With Kathie Lee & Hoda host joked, disagreeing with her friend’s compliment.

“I used to watch, and I used to say I was a news girl, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know if I can do that’...when I got the job, I’m like, ‘Just so you know, I can see you, you’re a trailblazer in this genre.’ And you’re like, ‘I know,’” she recalled. “You were so gracious about it.”

Kotb continued to reminisce over the history of Today’s fourth hour.

“I learned from [Kathie Lee,] and I was scared to go off on my own,” she explained. “And then I met [Jenna,] and I was so proud the day you walked out. I’ll never forget it. And now, you’re welcoming [Sheinelle].”

Jones would occasionally assume Kotb’s place on TODAY With Hoda & Jenna when she took a day off.

“When I would fill in, I would sit under her head and be like, ‘Look she has melanin, too!’” the new co-host teased.

Kotb suggested they make a toast, with four glasses hanging from the ceiling dropping toward them.

“I think that we should propose a toast to the most important thing that makes everything work. Two words,” she started. “One is fun, and the more important one is sisterhood.”

“You know what, you left God out,” Gifford added. “May it grow every day as ours did, you all, truly.”

Jones — whose late husband, Uche Ojeh, passed away last year — reflected on her partner’s words of encouragement to take over for Kotb after she announced her departure.

“Uche always felt like, when we were in college, ‘Oh, you should do a show…you should do a talk show,’” she remembered. “He just felt like I should, and I used to be like, ‘Whatever’...when Hoda announced that she was leaving, he was really sick, so we weren’t talking as much, but I could talk to him and he would send me emojis and stuff like that, and that would be how we talked.”

At one point, Ojeh messaged his wife a screenshot of a headline about Kotb leaving with a thumbs up, crossed fingers and flexed muscles emojis.

“He felt like it was my turn to shine and to try…” Jones expressed. “That was almost two years ago.”