Hoda Talks About First Time Anchoring

Hoda Kotb relived one of her no so better moments anchoring the news.

Kotb tells Page Six “The first time I filled in anchoring I was totally paranoid and scared . . . There was an anchorwoman who was . . . off that day and I happened to show up for work in a blazer. The prompter — I’ll never forget it — said ‘Good evening, I’m Hoda Kotb. Ann Martin is off tonight,’ and they hit the red light and they cued me and I looked in the camera and I said, ‘Good evening, I’m Ann Martin.’ Ann Martin was a legend in that town. I still remember it in slow motion.”

Martin, on whom Anchorman 2's Christina ­Applegate’s character is said to be based, was LA’s KABC-TV’s anchor from the early 1980s to 1994, before moving to KCBS. Kotb said, “It was like the worst newscast in the history of the world . . . It was a disaster . . . It was like saying, ‘I’m Oprah,’ and people were like, ‘No you’re not.’ ”

The worst newscast in the world?

I don't think so Hoda.

Note: As a number of you pointed out the NY Post Page Six story is wrong. The Ann Martin Hoda Kotb was talking about is not the Ann Martin from. LA. It was Ann Martin from small market station WXVT.