‘Today’: Savannah Guthrie Reveals ‘New Voice’ After Vocal Surgery
What To Know
- Savannah Guthrie gave an update on her vocal surgery recovery, giving Today viewers a preview of her new and improved voice.
- The Today hosts were surprised by Guthrie’s positive health update.
- Guthrie revealed when she will return to the Today anchor desk.
Today fans won’t have to wait too much longer for Savannah Guthrie to return to the anchor desk.
It’s been one month since Guthrie stepped away from the NBC morning show to undergo surgery to remove vocal nodules and a polyp. She made a virtual appearance on the show’s Tuesday, January 20, episode to share an exciting update about her recovery.
“Hi, Savannah! We miss you! How are you feeling?” Jenna Bush Hager asked. Guthrie began to write “love you” on her dry-erase board before stopping herself to state, “You know what? I think it’d be easier for me to just talk.”
Guthrie speaking again surprised her Today colleagues. “Savannah, careful! What’s happening?” Bush Hager questioned. Guthrie clarified, “I am still on vocal rest, but I’m allowed to talk for about five to 10 minutes every hour. This is my new voice, or my old voice, but my new voice.”
Bush Hager said Guthrie’s new and improved voice sounded “beautiful,” while Sheinelle Jones gushed, “Savannah sounds good!” Craig Melvin and Carson Daly disagreed with Al Roker‘s assessment that Guthrie sounded the “same,” instead stating that she sounded “better” and “stronger.”
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Guthrie said it’s been a “slow recovery,” adding, “You’re allowed to talk, and then, if you talk too much — which is a real risk for me — you start to feel it. So, you just have to really take it easy.”
Daly jokingly asked if she’s given her new voice a “good test drive yet and yelled at the kids.” Guthrie said yes, replying, “A long weekend will bring that out. Especially, Mike had to travel. It was like, it finally got there.” (Guthrie shares her daughter, Vale, 11, and son, Charley, 9, with her husband, Michael Feldman.)
When asked when she will be back on Today, Guthrie revealed, “I’m gonna come back to the show, I think, next Monday. But Friday, I’m gonna come and we’re gonna do a little story about just what this whole thing has been like and the surgery.”
She continued, “I’m surprised so many people have been so sweet and wrote comments. And it’s very common, I knew that because of Sheinelle, but people that talk a lot, like teachers, for example, a lot of people have told me they’ve had this exact same thing.”
Jones, who underwent a similar surgery in 2020 to remove a vocal polyp, said the experience is a “teachable moment,” as people “take our voices for granted until they don’t work.”
NBC
Guthrie ended her Today appearance by showing off some of the “funny gifts” she received during her time off. One of her presents included a mug which read, “Sorry, I can’t talk right now. I’m on vocal rest.” Another mug read, “Don’t make me use my Mahjong voice.”
Guthrie announced her surgery plans on the December 19 episode of Today, which also marked her last day before going on medical leave. In addition to sharing updates on social media, Guthrie appeared on the show’s January 12 episode. Communicating via her dry-erase board, Guthrie shared that she was spending her time off journaling, reading, painting, and doing daily meditations.
Today, Weekdays, 7 a.m./6c, NBC
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