Savannah Guthrie Returns to ‘Today’ Amid Fan Concern Over Her Recent Absence From the Show 

Savannah Guthrie is back in action on Today after missing several episodes of the show over the past few weeks. The broadcaster made her return to the program on Thursday, July 20. 

Savannah, 51, was absent from Today on Wednesday, July 19. She was replaced by weekend anchor Willie Geist at the news desk that day. 

Savannah’s disappearance came as a shock to some fans after she earned praise for her interview with Oppenheimer director Christopher Nolan in the studio on Tuesday, July 18. That same day, she was photographed interacting with fans outside in Rockefeller Plaza and waving to spectators. 

“Oh, I see that you are there every once in a while,” one viewer wrote in an Instagram comment on a clip from the interview. “Good to know.” 

The week prior, she also was missing a few times from the series as she attended a Bruce Springsteen concert in London’s Hyde Park with her husband, Mike Feldman. Craig Melvin stepped in for Savannah to cohost alongside Hoda Kotb amid some of her most recent days off. 

While Savannah has not provided reasoning for her frequent absences from Today, many viewers have wondered if she is still a full-time host of the series. 

One Twitter user questioned if Savannah will still be working “five days in a row” on Today while pursuing other ventures outside the show. Others hoped that Willie, 48, would be making more frequent appearances on the weekday version of the program in the future since he is a “joy” to watch. 

So far, Savannah has not announced any plans to permanently leave Today. Earlier this year, she celebrated a special milestone with Hoda, 58, after marking five years together as cohosts. The pair became the first all-female duo to anchor Today in January 2018. 

In honor of the milestone, they took a look back at some of their best moments together on the show over the years.

“We’re so lucky. You’re my soul sister,” Savannah told Hoda during the episode. “To get to do this together — you held my hand five years ago. We said, ‘Let’s do this.’ And this has been the joy of a lifetime.”

Hoda echoed the same sentiment as she toasted five years of memorable segments on television with her costar. 

“Can I just say that the stuff that we show on TV is fun, but the stuff I love the most is the stuff that’s not on TV,” Hoda said. “I’m just thinking about our morning — just this morning — and there are so many [moments] just like that, that happen before the cameras all go on and we really get to be us.”