Savannah Guthrie Was ‘Dismayed’ Over Doubts She’d Return to ‘Today’ After Mom’s Disappearance

Work was the last thing on Savannah Guthrie‘s mind until her peers started to doubt she would ever return to NBC’s Today show after her mom Nancy‘s disappearance.

Nancy, the 84-year-old mother of Savannah, went missing on February 1, when police believe she was abducted from her home in Tucson, Arizona. Investigators have released doorbell camera footage of a masked suspect and sent DNA for testing at the FBI lab in Quantico, but no suspects have been named publicly.

In a feature for Vulture, New York Magazine’s Irin Carmon reported that Savannah “barely thought about work or how she might eventually handle her return” until she learned that some of her peers questioned whether she’d ever come back to the long-running morning show.

Carmon noted a Status newsletter from February that stated, “a majority of TV veterans expressed doubts” that Savannah would return to Today. Sources reportedly told Carmon that Savannah was “surprised and dismayed” by the speculation.

“As the case dragged on without resolution, the question became harder to avoid,” Carmon continued. “According to the source close to her, [Savannah] worried about her ability to hold it together on air and whether the dark cloud around the story could somehow harm the show.”

Despite her concerns, Savannah returned to the air 64 days after Nancy’s disappearance. While she thanked viewers for their prayers and letters and wore yellow in support of her mother, Savannah didn’t discuss the ongoing case on the show. After saying it was “good to be home,” Savannah continued with the day’s news as per usual.

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A senior staffer told Carmon that it was “Savannah’s idea” that they would “all say as little as possible about her absence.” Another person close to the show said that the team acknowledged that “most viewers were not tuning in to have a séance about her missing mom.”

In her return episode, her co-host, Craig Melvin, patted Savannah’s hand and told her it was “good to have [her] back home.” The pair then continued with business as usual, and it wasn’t until the hosts focused on well-wishers on the plaza that Savannah became teary-eyed.

During Savannah’s absence, her former co-host Hoda Kotb returned to the Today desk to fill in. Kotb, who had retired from NBC News a year earlier, also sat down with Savannah for her first TV interview following her mom’s disappearance.

In the interview, Savannah said it was “hard” to imagine being back on the show “because it’s such a place of joy and lightness,” adding, “I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not. But I can’t not come back because it’s my family. I think it’s part of my purpose right now. I want to smile, and when I do, it will be real. And my joy will be my protest. My joy will be my answer, and being there is joyful. And when it’s not, I’ll say so.”