Early career Gifford's career took off in 1978 when she joined the cast of the short-lived
Hee Haw spinoff,
Hee Haw Honeys. She was also a correspondent and substitute anchor on
ABC's
Good Morning America in the early 1980s.
Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee On June 24, 1985, Gifford replaced Ann Abernathy as co-host of
The Morning Show on
WABC-TV with
Regis Philbin. The program went into national broadcast in 1988 as
Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, and Gifford became well known across the country. Throughout the 1990s, morning-TV viewers watched her descriptions of life at home with her sportscaster husband Frank, son Cody, and daughter Cassidy. In 1990, when
TV Guide held a poll for readers to select the most beautiful woman on television,
Live! presented a week-long mock campaign to garner votes for Gifford. Gifford wound up winning the poll, receiving more than four times as many votes as the runners-up,
Jaclyn Smith and
Nicollette Sheridan. Gifford decided to leave the show in 2000. She explained that filling in for
Carol Burnett on Broadway and guest-hosting
Late Show with David Letterman had inspired her to pursue more challenging work. The day after she hosted
Late Show on February 24, 2000, she told Regis she had decided to leave
Live!. Her last episode aired on July 28, 2000.
Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda On March 31, 2008, NBC announced that Gifford was to join its morning show,
Today, as co-host of the fourth hour titled
Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda, alongside
Hoda Kotb. This marked her return to morning television; in many markets, she aired directly after her old show, currently called
Live with Kelly and Mark. Because the fourth hour of
Today airs live at 10:00 am ET, and
Live with Kelly and Ryan airs live at 9:00 am ET, Gifford's hour did not compete directly with her former show in most markets. Kotb and Gifford replaced
Ann Curry and
Natalie Morales. In the weeks prior to Gifford's arrival, ratings indicated 1.9 million viewers of the fourth hour of
Today. As of 2014, the fourth hour of
Today with Gifford and Kotb averaged 2.15 million total viewers, an increase of 13 percent over the 2008 ratings. On December 11, 2018, it was announced that she would be leaving
Today in April 2019. Her final Today Show appearance was on April 5, 2019, with a party, including a video by her children Cody and Cassidy Gifford. In 2019, they won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informative Talk Show Host.
Other media appearances and projects Gifford has made guest appearances in films and television series, and has several independently released albums on
CD, including 2000's
The Heart of a Woman, featuring the single "
Love Never Fails". She appeared as a spokesperson for
Slim Fast diet shakes after her son Cody was born. She also was the face of
Carnival Cruise Lines in the late 1980s and early 1990s, singing "If my friends could see me now!" In 1991 she christened the
Carnival Ecstasy, the 2nd of the
Fantasy Class of cruise ships. In 1994, she appeared as herself in
an episode of the NBC sitcom
Seinfeld. She did a number of voice overs most notably as Echidna in the 1998 TV series
Hercules and in
Higglytown Heroes as the Mail Carrier Hero in 2004. In September 2005 she became a special correspondent on
The Insider, a syndicated entertainment magazine television show, ending her relationship with that program upon her co-hosting role with
Today. She played the role of Miss Hannigan in a concert performance of
Annie at
Madison Square Garden in December 2006. On an episode that aired March 27, 2010, she guest starred on
The Suite Life on Deck, along with her real-life daughter, Cassidy. She appeared as herself in the 2015 television film
Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!. She has written numerous autobiographical books, ''Just When I Thought I'd Dropped my Last Egg: Life and Other Calamities
in 2010, The Rock, the Road and the Rabbi
in March 2018, and It’s Never Too Late: Make the Next Act of Your Life the Best Act of Your Life
in 2020. Her book regarding the Christian faith, The Jesus I Know: Honest Conversations and Diverse Opinions about Who He Is'' was released in 2021. She has also written a number of children's books.
Ongoing career Gifford left
Today in order to pursue a movie career as an actress, director, and producer. In 2018, she filmed
Then Came You in which she co-stars with
Craig Ferguson. That same year, she also filmed a Hallmark Christmas movie for
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries called
A Godwink Christmas. Gifford intends to make movies about the experiences of losing a loved one and being a widow, which she considers an underrepresented topic in Hollywood. Gifford has several projects in the works including sequels to
Then Came You. On April 28, 2021, Gifford was honored with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the television industry. Her star is located at 6834
Hollywood Boulevard, only five stars away from that of her former co-host Regis Philbin.
Musical theatre In the late 1990s, Gifford began working in musical theatre. She contributed a number of musical numbers to
Hats, and wrote and produced
Under The Bridge, based upon the children's book
The Family Under The Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson. In 2000 she released the album
The Heart of a Woman on Universal. Gifford wrote the book and lyrics for
Saving Aimee, a stage musical about evangelist
Aimee McPherson, which premiered in 2007 at the
Signature Theatre in
Arlington, Virginia. The premiere starred actress
Carolee Carmello in the lead role. The show, retitled as
Scandalous: The Life and Trials of Aimee Semple McPherson, ran on Broadway from November 15, 2012, through December 9, 2012, with Carmello reprising her role as McPherson. On April 30, 2013, Carmello received her third
Tony Award nomination for the performance. On April 16, 2007, Gifford was a guest presenter at the Washington, D.C.
Helen Hayes Award Ceremony, honoring contributions and professional accomplishments in theatre. In 2008, Gifford and
David Friedman wrote a junior high school musical entitled
Key Pin It Real. The play depicts a coming-of-age story about a young girl named Key Pin. The first production took place in December 2008 in
Kendallville, Indiana, at
East Noble High School. In 2011, Gifford was working on a musical adaptation of ''
It's a Wonderful Life'' with
John McDaniel; McDaniel is composing music while Gifford is writing lyrics. ==Other endeavors==