SAVANNAH GUTHRIE’S SUDDEN ‘TODAY’ ABSENCE HAD FANS WORRIED—HERE’S THE REAL REASON CQ

Savannah Guthrie on the ‘Today’ show in April 2025.Credit : 

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

Savannah Guthrie is out of New York and on a short break from the Today show.

The 54-year-old co-anchor was absent from the NBC morning show on Wednesday, June 17 and Thursday, June 18. After previously saying Guthrie was “on assignment,” co-anchors Craig Melvin and Sheinelle Jones shared more insight into Guthrie’s absence.

“Savannah starts production meetings on the Wordle game show coming to NBC,” Melvin shared, while Jones added, “It’s coming! Yeah, I’m excited for her.”

Jones also joked at the top of the June 18 show, “Perhaps Savannah is amongst the huge crowd taking over the streets of New York today for the Knicks’ victory parade.”

Guthrie herself shared some pictures on her Instagram Story from Los Angeles, which included a Wordle sign and the caption “Coming soon.”

She also posted a photo of her Wordle nameplate, complete with her initials.

In May, Guthrie announced that she was hosting the new Wordle game show on NBC, partnering with The New York Times.

While on the West Coast, Guthrie met up with another member of her Today family — Carson Daly.

“When in LA see your bestie @carsondaly,” she wrote with a photo of herself and Daly, 52, on the set of The Voice.

Guthrie, a self-described Voice superfan, also posed inside one of the music competition show’s big red chairs, writing, “In @carsondaly’s house.”

Guthrie returned to her role on the morning show in April after an extended leave of absence amid the investigation into her mother Nancy Guthrie’s abduction.

Savannah’s 84-year-old mother was taken from her Tucson, Ariz., home in the early morning hours of Feb. 1. Despite months of investigation and uncovered doorbell camera footage of a masked intruder on her property, no suspects have been named in the case.

“We’ve been working on this for a really long time, and actually we just found out in February that we got picked up and we were supposed to shoot in March,” Savannah shared of the Wordle show at the time.

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

Savannah recently spoke with her friend Jenna Bush Hager while guest co-hosting Today with Jenna & Sheinelle, about how she’s navigated her return to the Today show.

“It’s always with me,” Savannah said. “I cry every morning on the way to work, and I cry every morning on the way home. And I’m grateful to have good friends and to be able to come to such a beautiful and joyous and supportive place. Like so many people out there, you can hold all of these things together. I try to tell my kids that too. We can hold our sadness and we can hold our joy. And if you don’t believe it, just watch me.”