recalled<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n\n Former co-host Hoda Kotb returned to Studio 1A on Friday morning and reflected on how Savannah showed up for other members of the team, too.\n <\/p>\n
\n Kotb said Savannah was \u201cfirst in the hospital room\u201d when Kotb\u2019s daughter had a health scare.\n <\/p>\n
\n Kotb looked at Carson Daly and said Savannah \u201chopped on a plane\u201d when his mother died. Then, looking at Melvin, she said, \u201cHow about when your brother passed?\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cSavannah,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Sheinelle](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/gettyimages-1249298061.jpg\")
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\n The show\u2019s history helps explain why these moments resonate so deeply with viewers.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cToday\u201d invented the very format of morning TV back in the 1950s. The idea, from the very beginning, was to ease viewers into a new day with amiable hosts who covered the news, cracked jokes and fit right into viewers\u2019 at-home routines.\n <\/p>\n
\n Thus, shows like \u201cToday\u201d are all about chemistry, and there have been chapters in the show\u2019s past when it was noticeably absent. Chats on the couch looked uncomfortable; segments showing group outings felt forced.\n <\/p>\n
\n When viewers have sensed family dysfunction, they\u2019ve changed channels en masse, most memorably when NBC executives decided to demote co-host Ann Curry in 2012.\n <\/p>\n
\n Curry\u2019s teary-eyed farewell show made viewers uncomfortable and shattered the \u201cfamily\u201d image that NBC had spent untold millions of dollars selling.\n <\/p>\n
\n As one savvy viewer told The Associated Press, \u201cthe PR machine at NBC spent an enormous amount of time and effort convincing me that the \u2018Today\u2019 show team was actually part of my family, \u2018America\u2019s First Family.\u2019 Guess what? They were right. These did feel like family members. So this is how you are going to treat a member of your family?\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Many \u201cToday\u201d viewers tuned to ABC\u2019s \u201cGood Morning America,\u201d where executives were marketing a new \u201cfamily\u201d of hosts.\n <\/p>\n
\n After NBC began losing to ABC in the ratings race, NBC hired a research firm to make recommendations. One of the top items on the fix-it list was \u201cour family needs to be fun again.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Savannah Guthrie was promoted to co-host that year. She had nothing to do with Curry\u2019s departure from the show, but worried at the time about being blamed for it.\n <\/p>\n
\n Some Curry fans hesitated to embrace Savannah, but that didn\u2019t last long, and she soon became a centerpiece of \u201cToday.\u201d The show gradually regained its lead in the key ratings demographic of viewers ages 25 to 54.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Ann](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/gettyimages-138228791.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Last December, NBC trumpeted a ten-year winning streak for \u201cToday\u201d in that metric.\n <\/p>\n
\n The show is a platform for all the different parts of Guthrie\u2019s personality: Interviewer, jokester, legal correspondent, amateur guitarist.\n <\/p>\n
\n She is now one of the best-known personalities at NBC, anchoring election nights and hosting events like the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day Parade.\n <\/p>\n
\n She was set to co-host NBC\u2019s telecast of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Milan on Friday, but the trip was scrapped due to her family crisis.\n <\/p>\n
\n Melvin \u201cwill also remain stateside,\u201d the network said Wednesday, instead of hosting \u201cToday\u201d and some late-night Olympics coverage from Milan.\n <\/p>\n
\n Meanwhile, security has been stepped up at \u201cToday,\u201d sources told CNN. The additional security measures were implemented out of an abundance of caution and may help alleviate some of the stress the show\u2019s hosts feel as they talk on-air every morning about the unsolved mystery.\n <\/p>\n
\n Journalists at NBC and elsewhere continue to wonder if Nancy Guthrie was targeted due to Savannah\u2019s high-profile work, though local authorities have said there is no \u201ccredible information\u201d pointing that way.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBC used to promote the cast of the \u201cToday\u201d show as \u201cAmerica\u2019s first family,\u201d and this agonizing week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[49,48,75,348],"class_list":["post-458111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Jenna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/gettyimages-1137745448.jpg\")
<\/p>\n