Craig Melvin Emotionally Reflects on Landing“ Today”'s Top Anchor Seat: 'This Is a Gift and It's Not Lost on Me' (Exclusive)

The NBC newsman is taking over the position from longtime 'Today' anchor Hoda Kotb

Craig Melvin admits he’s generally not an anxious person. He doesn’t “really do excited” either. But reality was setting in as he welcomed PEOPLE into his Westport, Conn., home just days before he began his new job as Today’s co-anchor alongside Savannah Guthrie.

“I’m nervous,” he says. “The show is a beloved national institution that has been around for about 73 years. No one wants to be the person who’s at the helm of the ship when the ship finds ice.”

He may be feeling pressure but he’s more than ready. Melvin, 45, got his start in high school as a teen correspondent at WIS-TV, a local station in South Carolina, and has worked at NBC for the last 13 years, first as a weekend anchor for MSNBC before joining Today as a news anchor and 3rd Hour Today host in 2018.

“But I’ve never done this,” he says. “I’m anxious but at the same time, it’s the first time I’ve been this excited about anything outside the day I got married and the birth of my two children. I am beyond stoked.”

Related: Hoda Kotb Praises Craig Melvin as Her Today Co-Anchor Replacement: 'You Are Made for This Job'

The newsman, who shares son Delano, 10, and daughter Sybil, 8, with wife Lindsay Czarniak, is taking over the position from longtime Today anchor Hoda Kotb, who said her farewells on Jan. 10 after 17 years at the show.

“Those aren’t shoes you step into,” says Melvin. “We’ve put those shoes on the shelf, because that’s an impossible feat. I’m just going to wear my shoes and keep my fingers crossed.”

Kotb has no doubt that the job is in good hands. “He is the natural perfect person,” she says. “I told him, ‘There’s nothing to be worried about. You have all the things that you need.’”

He had a knack for journalism from an early age. At 16, Melvin won an Associated Press reporting competition for his WIS-TV segment about his favorite teacher. “From the very beginning, I fell in love with a good story,” he says. “And, by the way, everyone has a good story.”

He got a job at WIS-TV after college and climbed the ranks from associate producer to evening news anchor. “I was determined to outwork everyone,” he says. “Maybe I wasn’t going to be the smartest or the most connected, go to the best school, but you weren’t going to outwork me.”

In 2008, he took a big swing and moved to Washington, D.C. to work at NBC-affiliate WRC-TV. “I’d bought a house in Columbia. All of my family is in Columbia. I was fully prepared to live there, retire, and just be like the King of Columbia,” he says. “I didn’t leave until I was 28, which in our business, is a little late. Washington, D.C., was a big leap.”

But his risk had a huge reward when he met the sports reporter at WRC-TV. “The best thing that’s ever happened to me personally and professionally is marrying Lindsay Czarniak,” says Melvin of his wife of 13 years, an award-winning sportscaster and TV host. “She doesn’t just get me as a person, as a husband — she understands the business.”

Related: Craig Melvin's Cutest Photos with His Kids Delano and Sybil

Czarniak, 47, has been cheering Melvin on since he began working for MSNBC in 2011 as a weekend anchor. As he took on new positions as a NBC News correspondent, then Weekend Today co-anchor and Dateline Extra anchor, he pitched ideas for Today. “I remember being just awestruck,” he says of stepping into Studio 1A for the first time. “I wanted to become a part of the Today show ecosystem.” In 2018 he got his wish when he became a Today news anchor and host of 3rd Hour Today. 

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As Melvin reflects on his “exciting” next chapter, he admits it’s a “scary” time. “If you spend decades working toward something, and then all of a sudden you get it, it’s like, ‘Okay. Well, crap. Well now, I don’t want to screw it up.’ And that’s where I am now. I just don’t want to screw it up.” 

But Melvin’s colleagues’ confidence in him is unanimous, and Kotb says he will be in good hands alongside Guthrie, “the best partner in the entire world. She’ll catch you, you can be completely yourself.”

Adds Guthrie, “We support each other and have each other’s backs. Craig has proven himself to be an incredible journalist, a basically flawless broadcaster, a warm, engaging interviewer and a wonderful colleague and teammate. We’re just so lucky that the perfect person for this job was sitting right next to us the whole time.”

Melvin notes that he and Guthrie have become “dear friends” over the years, “so going on this adventure with her is something that I’m really excited about.” 

He also has two very important people in his corner, his parents Betty Jo and Lawrence. “They believed in me long before anyone else,” Melvin says with tears in his eyes. “I didn’t fully appreciate how much they had sacrificed over the years.”

For more on Craig Melvin, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

During his first broadcast as co-anchor on Jan. 13, Melvin dedicated a toast to his parents who were on set: “Without them and the sacrifices they made when I was a kid, I’m not here,” he said.

Now, he's ready to take in his new view from the top for a long time. “Hoda’s inspiring a lot of people. She’s leaving at the top of her game. That’s not going to be me,” he says with a laugh. “They’re going to wheel me out of that place. I’m taking the Al Roker approach. You are going to get so sick of seeing and hearing Craig Melvin. I’m not going anywhere.”

The Today show airs weekdays on NBC beginning at 7 a.m. ET.