Inside ‘Today’: How the Show Subtly Tackled the Search for Savannah Guthrie’s Mother

Every weekday morning, Savannah Guthrie is a familiar face as she leads the “Today” show, but recently, she has become an unexpected headline herself due to a distressing personal crisis: the disappearance of her 84-year-old mother.

In a unique twist of journalistic fate, NBC’s “Today” show finds itself reporting on a story that hits close to home, challenging its format of being more than just a news program but a family that viewers invite into their homes each day. Guthrie, who has been a co-host since 2012, is now at the center of this unfolding news story.

The likely abduction of Nancy Guthrie from her home in Arizona over the past weekend has been prominently featured as the lead story on “Today” throughout the week, resonating across other media outlets as well.

“Our thoughts and prayers are steadfastly with our friend,” expressed co-host Craig Melvin. In Guthrie’s absence, Sheinelle Jones has stepped in, typically known for anchoring the show’s fourth hour, to fill the gap left by her colleague.

The coverage by “Today” stands in stark contrast to another major media development: The Washington Post’s decision not to have any of its journalists cover the recent announcement of significant staff layoffs affecting one-third of its workforce, highlighting different approaches to covering internal news.

For the viewers of “Today,” Guthrie’s mother was a familiar figure, underscoring the personal connection that the show’s format fosters with its audience.

For the most part, “Today” was relatively straightforward in its coverage, while mindful of the fact that it affected a person that its viewers “knew.” Dedicated fans are also familiar with Guthrie’s mother, who has made a handful of appearances on the show with her daughter over the years — clips that were replayed this past week.

Melvin and Jones updated the story with each day’s developments, with the help of reporter Liz Kreutz in Arizona and Tom Winter, a law enforcement correspondent. At times, the details came at a frustratingly slow pace. “We’re getting new information,” Winter said at one point. “Unfortunately, it’s not really new information than can help advance the case.”

Rather than overdoing it, the show seems to have covered the developments as they would if another well-known person — and not the mother of “Today’s co-host — was involved, said Shelley Ross, a longtime ”Today” competitor as former top producer at ABC’s “Good Morning America” and, later, CBS’ morning show.

“They’re reporting it as stoically as possible without medicating themselves,” Ross said. “They were very professional in their coverage. I think it was pitch-perfect and helpful.”

When Guthrie recorded a video message with her brother and sister, addressed to their mother and potential kidnappers, “Today” aired it in full. That was one indication of the personal involvement — other networks generally aired bits and pieces of the video — but Ross argued that it made for effective television. “Today” seems to have sought — and was taking the advice — of experts in hostage situations, she said.

Another family member returns in time of crisis

The need to cover the story when the show was part of the news isn’t foreign to “Today” — or Guthrie. NBC left it to her and Hoda Kotb to tell viewers in 2017 when Matt Lauer was fired for “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a colleague.

Beyond this week’s headlines, “Today” colleague Jenna Bush Hager reported on Guthrie’s religious faith, saying they were neighbors in New York City who often attended church together. Kotb, Guthrie’s co-anchor after Lauer’s firing until she left the show last year, returned Friday for a story about how others in news and entertainment, along with “Today” viewers, had shown their support.

“There’s this helpless feeling,” she said.

Viewing Kotb’s return as a “family member” returning home at a time of crisis may seem schmaltzy, but it’s an apt metaphor in this case, said Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University’s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture.

Network morning shows are the ultimate fluid format: a “Today” host could report on a complex breaking news story one morning, and dress up in a Halloween costume the next, Thompson said. The show’s sets are often designed to make it appear like a viewer is looking into a living room.

“This is really the ‘Today’ show doing exactly what the ‘Today’ show was designed to do three-quarters of a century ago,” Thompson said.

Guthrie’s absence was also noted Friday at the beginning of NBC’s coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. She was supposed to have co-hosted the event with Terry Gannon, but stayed in Arizona to be with her family and was replaced by Mary Carillo. “She is dearly missed by everybody,” said Terry Gannon, the co-host.

NBC’s Guthrie coverage made The Washington Post’s own decision more noticeable. With the troubled news outlet facing headwinds over the past few years, its management decreed that its own media reporters who cover the news industry not write about their own. They stuck with that decision even as the deep layoffs, which included eliminating the newspaper’s sports section, were widely covered elsewhere.

The Post’s website instead ran a story about its own announcement that was written by The Associated Press.

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David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.