Savannah Guthrie returned to the TODAY show last month on Monday, April 6. This came two months after her mother Nancy Guthrie, 84, was kidnapped from her home in Tucson, Arizona. Sadly, Nancy remains missing, and the search for her continues.
On the morning of Wednesday, May 6, Savannah shocked viewers when she abruptly left TODAY mid-show. This led many to speculate that she may have gotten a sudden update on her mom’s kidnapping.
Savannah Disappears From TODAY Mid-Show
At 8:30am, Savannah’s co-host Craig Melvin was out on the TODAY Show Plaza along with Jenna Bush Hager, Sheinelle Jones, Carson Daly and Dylan Dreyer. Savannah, however, was suddenly nowhere to be found.
“Savannah had to leave a little early,” Craig said. “She will be right back here tomorrow though.”
Craig did not elaborate any further on why exactly Savannah had to leave.
The moment was made all the more strange by the fact that the hosts were joined on the plaza by one of Savannah’s high school teachers. Indeed, the woman had shown up on the plaza with a sign featuring the news anchor’s throwback photos. She clearly had wanted to see Savannah, yet she was gone.
“Speaking of, this was Savannah’s teacher,” Jenna said. “Was Savannah a great student?”
“Oh yeah, great student,” the teacher replied.
Check out the strange moment for yourself in the video below.
Savannah Comes Back The Next Day
Savannah didn’t return to TODAY for the rest of the morning. On the morning of Thursday, May 7, Savannah was back in her anchor seat acting like nothing ever happened. Instead, she seemed to be in good spirits as she kicked off the show by gushing over the new Legally Blonde prequel series, Elle, which debuts on Amazon Prime on July 1.
“I know, I love Legally Blonde. I connect with this character and now we get to see her in high school,” Savannah said. She added that she dressed as Reese Witherspoon’s character Elle Woods for the TODAY show’s Halloween special one year.
No explanation for Savannah’s absence on Wednesday was ever given. People Magazine even reached out to TODAY to ask what happened, but they got no response.
A source added to the mystery by claiming to Page Six that Savannah had to leave “for some sort of appointment, and her exit had nothing to do with her mom.” However, many are not buying that, as Savannah had seemed poised to host the entire TODAY show just as she normally does before her sudden exit.
Savannah Previously Leaves TODAY Mid-Show
This isn’t the first time that Savannah has abruptly left TODAY mid-show since her mother disappeared. Indeed, she also exited the program mid-show on the morning of April 15.
Part-way through the show, Savannah was seen sitting with the Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway, who was promoting her new movie Mother Mary.
Savannah seemed poised to interview Anne when she threw the show to a commercial break. When the TODAY show returned, however, Savannah was inexplicably gone. Indeed, Hoda Kotb took her place to interview Anne instead. On that occasion, Savannah’s sudden absence was never explained either.
Check out the moment for yourself in the video below.
Nancy Goes Missing
Nancy Guthrie was last seen on the night of Saturday, January 31. That evening, she had dinner with her daughter Annie and son-in-law Tommaso Cioni. They dropped her off at home afterwards at around 9:45pm, and she tragically hasn’t been seen since.
A masked intruder was captured on Nancy’s doorbell ring camera in the early hours of February 1. He managed to cover the camera with some plants before moving forward with the kidnapping.
It has since been revealed that the masked man had been seen in the doorbell ring camera prior to the night Nancy was taken. This indicates that he may have been casing out her home.
Savannah returned to TODAY last month after spending weeks in Arizona desperately trying to find her mother. Afterwards, an NBC source told Daily Mail that producers have worked out a key phrase with Savannah that they will use with her if she needs to leave to receive an update on her mother. According to this insider, Savannah would be told that she’s “needed off set” if an update comes in.
“We would pull her immediately, mid-segment if we had to,” the source explained. “She knows if one of the producers tells her she’s ‘needed off set’ that there’s a development. She would understand that there was news about her mom and we’d take her into an office and tell her, at the same time that another anchor would report it as a breaking story.”
We can’t imagine the stress and devastation that Savannah has been feeling over the past few months. Returning to the TODAY show could not have been easy for her.
Please join us in saying a prayer for the return of Nancy Guthrie.