After 1 year co-hosting ‘TODAY,’ Craig Melvin came back to Columbia to film hometown segment
Guthrie said Melvin was “talented, wonderful, hard-working, most worthy” during the Nov. 14 on-air announcement of his taking over for Kotb.
When the cameras aren’t rolling, Melvin’s learned to lean on his family for a sense of normality. Taking his son to basketball practice and picking his daughter up from dance have become some of the finer things in life. He has two healthy kids, a wife that loves him — on most days, he joked — and a rewarding career that has helped keep him grounded throughout this year’s changes.
Anchoring his career are values he learned to appreciate here in Columbia. His local news experience at WIS News 10 showed him the importance of localizing national issues and talking to the people impacted by those issues. It also earned him a few Best of Columbia wins.
It is here that he learned what it means to be a journalist. It is here that he spent nearly 36 hours on the streets, sleeping in Finlay Park, for a story highlighting people experiencing homelessness.
Finlay Park is set to reopen Nov. 15, 2025, after a two-year, $25 million renovation.
“That’s really, at the end of the day, what journalists are called to do. You give voice to the voiceless,” he said. “You focus on the people who are marginalized, and I learned that in Columbia.”
On his most recent trip, he found himself back at the new and improved Finlay Park, looking at the back of the post office on Assembly Street through an opening in the trees. The same post office his mail clerk father worked at and would take him to on special occasions.
The park looks different, the post office looks different and the city itself looks different. But for Melvin, it’s still the same “warm hug” every time he comes back. Columbia is growing up without losing its identity, and that’s what will continue to make it a special place to come back to, he said.
“I love it more now that I have moved away,” he said. “I’ve traveled the world, I’ve seen a lot, but man, Columbia’s it.”
