Almost a year to the day after retiring from “Today,” Hoda Kotb is back on the morning show filling in for pal Savannah Guthrie while the latter focuses on her missing 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie.
“Hoda’s joining us this morning as our ‘Today’ family continues to navigate uncharted territory balancing the updates on the search for Savannah’s mom with all the other stories of the day like we normally do, but we know things are far from normal right now,” co-host Craig Melvin said Monday. “So, folks, we are asking for your grace as we continue to do this.”
Sitting between Melvin and Carson Daly, with meteorologist Al Roker there too, Kotb said, “Paramount through all of this, Savannah and her family are our top priority.”
“In addition to that, there is also a job to do,” she continued. Kotb was named co-host of the morning show with Guthrie shortly after Matt Lauer’s November 2017 firing for what the network deemed “inappropriate sexual behavior.” She sat in that chair for seven years.
“Yeah and we’re going to do our best. It’s certainly not easy to do our jobs,” Daly said Monday. “We’re doing that obviously for her and for you, the viewers.”
Going on with the show was “exactly what Savannah would actually want us to do,” Roker added.
Kotb, like Guthrie and Melvin, was supposed to be in Italy to help cover the 2026 Winter Games, but all of them pulled out after Nancy Guthrie’s apparent abduction from her home north of Tucson on Feb. 1. The network had Terry Gannon and Mary Carillo covering the opening ceremony instead.
“Savannah will not be joining us at the Olympics as she focuses on being with her family during this difficult time,” an NBC Sports representative told The Times in a statement Tuesday. “Our hearts are with her and the entire Guthrie family as the search continues for their mother.”
Guthrie has been seen in a couple of Instagram videos since then looking exhausted and emotionally wrung out as she and her siblings try to communicate with whoever has their mother.
“We received your message, and we understand,” Guthrie said in a video posted Saturday afternoon, speaking to the kidnappers as she sat holding hands with her brother and sister. “We beg you now to return our mother to us so that we can celebrate with her. This is the only way we will have peace. This is very valuable to us, and we will pay.”
The communication was straightforward and a bit awkward, sadly missing the mentions of Nancy Guthrie’s humanity that had peppered the family’s first video. It also contained no request for proof of life, as the family had sought in the first video.
Kotb has joined the fight on social media as well, making numerous posts asking for prayers and assistance.
“It’s too much to bear… please bring her home,” the retired morning-show host wrote in her caption when she posted the Guthrie family’s first video message.
Friday found Kotb filling in as well, though it was unclear at the time whether she was going to be a regular again on “Today.” The mother of two girls left the show almost exactly a year ago to spend more time with her young girls. Melvin had been named as her replacement a couple of months earlier.