Something strange is happening here.

It’s unlikely that Scarlett Johansson co-hosting the final hour of the Today Show would crack any future list of the 10, or maybe even 50, most memorable or important things that happened the week of Jan. 20, 2025, given, well, everything. But that doesn’t make it any less puzzling.

Yes, the A-list actress spent the week filling in on the NBC morning show, and we’re still trying to figure out why. The official explanation that’s been given is that Hoda Kotb, Jenna Bush Hager’s beloved longtime co-host for the 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Eastern hour of the show, recently left, and Hager is welcoming in her place a series of guest hosts. Others included Eva Longoria and Michelle Buteau last week; next week, Kelsea Ballerini and Ciara will be among those stopping by, part of a week of music-centric guest hosts. But most of them only stayed for a day. Johansson stayed for a week. (Well, four days, since Monday was a holiday, but still.)

Johansson said on air that being a morning television host was actually a childhood dream of hers, which is a funny thing to say for someone who was a successful child actress. Her husband, Colin Jost, is a writer and cast member at Saturday Night Live, which also airs on NBC, so it stands to reason that her guest-hosting gig was helped along by already having an in at the network. Maybe it’s as simple as that, and when the opportunity arose, she realized she was well-placed to do it, and she figured why not? Is it actually the case that the Today Show would be happy to have any megafamous star co-host for a week, and ScarJo is the only one who took them up on it? Because, in case you need reminding, Johansson is really quite big. She has been nominated for Oscars. She’s a freaking Avenger. Her voice alone is so famous that an A.I. company allegedly attempted to steal it. (She threatened legal action.) She does not need the Today Show.

Despite all this, you’re probably wondering how ScarJo is at the job. The answer is … pretty good! It shouldn’t be all that surprising that the art of being a charismatic, beautiful actress in movies translates pretty seamlessly to being a likable TV presenter. The bar may be low, but she cleared it: She showed us her hack for opening a pickle jar; she had a cute reunion with her onetime co-star Topher Grace; she wore sensible slacks. All she really has to do was smile and offer minimal details about her life—she could barely stand upright postpartum, much less go to a football game like Brittany Mahomes just did—to fill the average viewers with that “Wow, relatable queen!” feeling. Sure, almost as often, these attempts landed awkwardly, such as when she talked about how she studied the “algorithm” of her daughter’s school bus for weeks (?), but most of the time, Johansson was easygoing and sharp, particularly for the venue. For an infrequent watcher, the Today Show, and Hager’s hour in particular, is a surreal place: It’s the kind of environment where Hager seems absolutely bowled over by the coincidence of discovering that Johansson’s birthday is just three days before her own. Johansson played along with it all, and for the most part, seemed genuinely happy to be there.

Today is a show for the masses, and with Johansson being best known these days for her role as Marvel’s Black Widow, perhaps that’s not so big a leap. But when Johansson first shot to fame, it was as the star of movies like Lost in Translation, and that’s another strange aspect of this: Imagine telling your 20-years-ago self that the young lady you just saw starring in a plaintive Sofia Coppola drama was going to be whooping it up on TV next to one of then-President George W. Bush’s daughters. The aughts were a long time ago indeed.

Gone are the days when there used to be a clear hierarchy of stardom, one where movie actresses sat squarely above television hosts. That world order has been collapsing for a while now, though it hasn’t gone away completely—Johansson herself is still primarily a movie actress, adhering to the old-school principle that movie stars don’t “do” TV. (She’s set the become the new face of yet another lucrative Hollywood franchise next summer.) But if they don’t do TV, they certainly don’t host Today, so what gives? We may never know, but I tend to think of this as akin to how the actress Sydney Sweeney has developed a reputation for endorsing tons of products, a practice that was until recently frowned upon: The old rules simply don’t matter anymore. If hot young things can hawk the ugliest shoes you’ve ever seen, why shouldn’t ScarJo replace Hoda? Because, by the way, fans are apparently calling for Johansson to be the show’s permanent replacement. Stranger things have happened.