{"id":481177,"date":"2026-02-21T04:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481177\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T04:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:05:07","slug":"what-will-today-do-if-savannah-guthrie-doesnt-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/481177\/","title":{"rendered":"What Will ‘Today’ Do if Savannah Guthrie Doesn’t Return?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSavannah Guthrie<\/a> and her family<\/a> \u2014 including her extended one at NBC\u2019s Today<\/a> show \u2014 are three weeks into a waking nightmare. It is believed that in the early morning hours of Sunday, Feb. 1, Guthrie family matriarch Nancy Guthrie<\/a> was kidnapped in a violent encounter and removed from her home in Tucson, Arizona. Her whereabouts remain unknown and the Guthrie family has received no proof of life.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe terrible personal circumstances put any professional matters on the back burner. At Today, the mood has been shock and concern<\/a> for their good friend and longtime colleague Savannah. There is also fear, and to that end, enhanced security. But the harsh reality of the business is that the show must go on, and Today has done so without its beloved co-anchor, who really is the mooring of the morning show.<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce it became clear that a very serious crime had been committed in Tucson, the folks at Today in New York City did what they could to support Savannah from afar. They sent love to Savannah and they sent information to the public. They did their jobs, substituting temporary talent onto Savannah\u2019s seat beside Craig Melvin and attempted to keep the show as \u201cnormal\u201d as possible. The program has dedicated two segments a day<\/a> to Nancy, who had also been a semi-regular on-camera guest, and Savannah. The show\u2019s communications team has kept the media abreast of the latest updates from the Guthrie family and the Pima County Sheriff\u2019s Office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt is incredibly concerning how long the search for Nancy has gone on. With each day and week that passes, the likelihood of finding the 84-year-old woman, who is in poor health and likely without her life-sustaining medication, decreases \u2014 especially the likelihood of finding her alive. The law enforcement failure (to this point) has not been for a lack of resources: between the sheriff\u2019s office and the FBI, there are literally hundreds of men and women on the case. Though he continues to hope for a speedy resolution, sheriff Chris Nanos has recently acknowledged<\/a> that it could be months or even years before such a case is cracked.<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo sources inside NBC News told The Hollywood Reporter they still expect Savannah Guthrie to return to the show when ready, and are planning accordingly. Staff and executives are of course cognizant of the fact that it would be difficult for anyone to return to such a post, which regularly includes lighthearted fare like cooking segments, after going through such a harrowing ordeal \u2014 regardless of how it concludes. They do not expect Guthrie back anytime in the near future.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs one of the sources put it, this situation is \u201cday to day.\u201d Internal conversations have been about how best to support Savannah in her sole focus of finding her mother.<\/p>\n

\n\tA Status report<\/a> on Wednesday cited \u201cmultiple TV veterans\u201d in a story saying it is doubtful Savannah will ever return.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere\u2019s no way Savannah\u2019s coming back,\u201d one of the anonymous sources told the publication. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine she would even want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cTV veterans\u201d were not directly tied to Today or NBC News in the story, but it was stated that several had news programming backgrounds. <\/p>\n

\n\tPage Six<\/a> took the quote and ran with it, including in its own headline: \u201cSavannah Guthrie not \u2018coming back\u2019 to \u2018Today\u2019 show after her mom\u2019s disappearance: report.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRight.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSavannah Guthrie<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNDZ\/Star Max\/GC Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tGuthrie is considered a unique and versatile talent \u2014 she can and has literally done it all. Should it come to the point where Today ultimately needs a replacement because Guthrie chooses to not return, historical practice and preference has usually been to promote from within. To that end, Sheinelle Jones has been seen as a rising star inside of the organization, which was reflected in her recent promotion alongside Jenna Bush Hager at 10 a.m. (Jones had been off for months after her husband died.) Jones has subbed in some for Guthrie in her absence.<\/p>\n

\n\tHoda Kotb has also chipped in. It is unlikely that Kotb would consider returning to the show on any sort of a permanent basis, however, as she just left it<\/a> about a year ago.<\/p>\n

\n\tThough this is no bake-off situation \u2014 it cannot be overstated just how singular this situation is \u2014 one potential longer shot from outside could be CBS\u2019 Gayle King. Her future at CBS News is very uncertain \u2014 everyone\u2019s is \u2014 but her ratings there are unimpressive. King is a strong talent, but it would be a bit of a strange choice for NBC to poach a lower-rated anchor with so much homegrown talent.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince Nancy Guthrie\u2019s kidnapping, viewers have naturally flocked to the Today show for the latest and closest-to-home coverage on the biggest media story in America. In the past few weeks, Today has had a larger audience<\/a> than Good Morning America on ABC. Almost surely, the Guthrie case is driving additional tune-in, but so are the Milano Cortina Olympics. Every two years, Today and other NBC News programs enjoy crossover opportunities and double-digit ratings boosts from the Winter and Summer Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Savannah Guthrie and her family \u2014 including her extended one at NBC\u2019s Today show \u2014 are three weeks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,209536,66501,7349,1256],"class_list":{"0":"post-481177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-nancy-guthrie","10":"tag-savannah-guthrie","11":"tag-today","12":"tag-today-show"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}