Jenna Bush Hager is two for two on excellence in the morning, according to Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.
Rogers and Yang, co-hosts of the “Las Culturistas” podcast, presented Jenna with her second Las Culturistas Culture Award on TODAY With Jenna & Friends on Aug. 5.
The โSaturday Night Liveโ star surprised Jenna with the Cultch for the TODAY Show Award for Excellence in the Morning as she sat behind her desk alongside Rogers, who is this week’s Jenna & Friends co-host.
“I am pleased to reveal at this time that the winner of the TODAY Show Award for Excellence in the Morning is Jenna Bush Hager!” Rogers said. “And here to present your award is Bowen Yang!”
Yang walked out holding the award, and the pair encouraged Jenna to give a speech.
Jenna walked over to a mic and pulled a note out of her shirt.
“I’d like to thank my mom, my cat, my children: kids, it’s time to get out of bed,” she said, before giving a cheeky shoutout to her father, former President George W. Bush.
“I’d also like to thank my dad. He may have won the presidency twice, well โ one time it was close โ but twice,” she said. “But I have won a Culture Award twice, so we’re even, diva!”
Jenna said the mornings are when the best moments happen, like when she gets to co-host TODAY With Jenna & Friends with hosts like Rogers and Yang.
“You two are family,” Jenna said. “Thanks for this award, and I know you didn’t give it to me in the actual show โ that’s OK. My feelings aren’t hurt. I know that’s not because the ceremony is in the evening, and definitely not because I actually couldn’t make it in person.”
Rogers and Yang replied, “She refused.”
“No, I didn’t refuse,” Jenna said.
Rogers emphasized: “It was a refusal.”
“Next year I’ll come!” Jenna said, before continuing her speech.
“This just goes to show that if you work hard, you replace Kathie Lee Gifford, and (you get) a sickening bob, you too can have podcast hosts that believe in you, and what I believe is there’s a door stop glued onto a wooden disc where dreams come true,” she added, describing the look of the physical Las Culturistas Culture Award.
Jenna won the TODAY Show Award for Excellence in the Morning, beating out fellow nominees:
- Sex, at times
- My girl Nanda at the coffee shop that I see each day
- Bodega guys that call you โbossโ
- Muffin
The Las Culturistas Culture Awards celebrate pop cultureโs most iconic events of the year, with a little bit of nonsense and whimsy, too, as Rogers and Yang present more than 100 awards throughout the night.
While the show is in its fourth year, 2025 marks the first time the awards will be televised, airing at 9 p.m. on Bravo on Aug. 5, and streaming the next day on Peacock on Aug. 6. (TODAY and Bravo are owned by the same parent company, NBCUniversal.)
Jenna and Hoda Kotb won the same award last year, beating out stiff competition like cold brew coffee and bird watching between 6 and 11 a.m., among others.
Hoda and Jenna did not attend the ceremony, but they sent in a video to accept the award. In the clip, the pair jumped up and down and shouted, โWe won!โ
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