Savannah Guthrie Not Ready for Hoda Kotb’s Today Exit: ‘If I Had My Way, We’d Be Together Forever’ (Exclusive)

Savannah Guthrie is going to keep things going after Hoda Kotb exits the Today show.

Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE at the Project Healthy Minds World Mental Health Day Gala on Thursday, Oct. 10, the broadcaster, 52, revealed that she will hold down the fort when her beloved co-host, 60, departs next year.

“I’ll hold it down,” Guthrie tells PEOPLE. “I got my Carson [Daly] and Craig [Melvin]. The whole crew.”

The broadcaster also opened up about her reaction when she first learned that Kotb would be leaving the NBC show.

“Well, I would say I was shocked but not surprised because she and I have had many, many conversations about life and what does it mean in our hopes and our dreams, and I knew that 60 was a big moment and where she’s thinking a lot about just how she wants to spend the rest of her day,” Guthrie tells PEOPLE. “So I wasn’t surprised.”

She continues, “But then when it happened, of course I was happy for her because I think it’s so courageous and bold and amazing and this mode of confidence in herself and her bright future that she’s writing, and she’s writing it.”

“It’s not like she knows, ‘Oh I’m going to this job. I’m going,’ ” Guthrie says. “She doesn’t know, but she knows what she can do and I love that and I’m inspired by that.”

She adds, “And of course I’m also sad because I love her so much and if I had it my way, we’d be together forever.”

Kotb announced last month that she was leaving Today after 17 years to focus on her daughters Haley Joy, 7, and Hope Catherine, 5.

“My broadcast career has been beyond meaningful, a new decade of my life lies ahead, and now my daughters and my mom need and deserve a bigger slice of my time pie,” she wrote in a letter to the NBC morning show staff, shared Thursday, Sept. 26. “I will miss you all desperately, but I’m ready and excited.”