Savannah Guthrie Appears on ‘Today’ After Announcing Weeks-Long Hiatus

Savannah Guthrie started her week off on Today, despite announcing her upcoming time off.

Back on Thursday, July 16, Guthrie shared that she will soon be taking several weeks off from the NBC morning show for an exciting reason. “I’m headed over to shoot Wordle. Over the next few weeks, we’re gonna shoot the whole season, and we’re super excited,” she told viewers and her Today colleagues. “Cannot wait for everyone to see it. It’ll probably air, I think, in the new year.”

Weekend Today‘s Laura Jarrett filled in for Guthrie on Today‘s Friday, July 17, episode, leaving many fans to think Guthrie began her break. However, she returned to Studio 1A on Monday, July 20. “Good morning. It’s Monday. We’re glad to have you out here on our plaza or watching at home,” she stated at the top of the show’s 8 a.m. ET hour. “Good to start the week with you. Sheinelle [Jones]‘s along with us. Craig [Melvin]‘s getting a little family vacay.”

While greeting fans out on 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Guthrie implied that Monday’s episode would be her last before her break begins. “Savannah, we’re excited for you!” Jones stated, to which Guthrie replied, “Oh, yeah! I’m leaving. I’m leaving town.”

Jones continued, “Savannah is heading off for a few weeks. She’s gonna shoot the first episodes of Wordle. We’ve said this before on the show, when Wordle first hit us, like, zeitgeist, if you will, we were all so into it. And Savannah was so good at it. So, it’s so fitting.”

Bush Hager gushed, “We’re gonna miss you so much, but we’re happy for you.” Guthrie told her colleagues that she will “send a postcard from the Wordle arena.”

News broke in October 2025 that NBC had tapped Guthrie to host the game show. Fallon, who will produce the series through his Electric Hot Dog production company, confirmed the show and Guthrie’s hosting role on the May 11 episode of Today.

“We were looking, and we were like, ‘Who’s the perfect host for this? We need to have someone that looks like they play Wordle, someone that knows how to run a show and host it,'” Fallon said. “And we did the pilot, and you are amazing, by the way.”

At the time, Savannah noted that the series was originally scheduled to film in March, but production was delayed following her mother’s disappearance. Nancy Guthrie has been missing from her Arizona home since February, and authorities have yet to name any suspects in the case.

 

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“I just want to say a quick thank you to NBC and to Jimmy and his production company and The New York Times and Studio Universal because when everything happened with me and my family, they just stopped everything and said, ‘We’ll wait for you,'” Savannah explained. “And Hollywood is a really tough business, as you know, and I didn’t expect that. And I just want to say thank you. It means so much to me.”

Last month, Savannah took a few days off from Today to begin production meetings for Wordle in Los Angeles.

Today, Weekdays, 7 am/6c, NBC

Wordle, TBA, NBC