Savannah Guthrie Skips ‘Today’ Episode Honoring Pal Jenna Bush Hager’s Book Club Milestone

Gone in a flash! Savannah Guthrie decided to take a day off from Today after a series of absences over the past month.

The broadcaster was missing from the morning talk show on Friday, March 1. Hoda Kotb was joined by Craig Melvin at the news desk at the top of the hour without Savannah, 52, in her usual spot. Instead, the journalist shared an Instagram Story strolling through NYC, after noticing that someone had drawn a pattern of hearts in chalk along the sidewalk.

During the Today show that morning, Hoda, 59, interviewed Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown before heading out onto the plaza with the rest of her costars. The Today crew celebrated five years of Jenna Bush Hager’s Read With Jenna book club.

The show invited several authors whose literary works have been featured on Read With Jenna to come and box up complete collections of their books. Each box will be shipped out to a library in one of the 50 states.

“I love reading for so many reasons, it really is sort of my escape from everyday life. It’s how I calm down. It’s how I detach. It’s how I fall in love with other places that I will never go to. It’s how I empathize with characters who are nothing like me,” Jenna, 42, told TODAY.com. “There’s nothing like falling in love with a book.”

While Savannah was noticeably absent from the TV celebration, the night before, she joined Jenna at an event to honor five years of Read With Jenna. In her Instagram Stories, Savannah praised her colleague for being a “literary mogul” and “tastemaker.”

February was certainly a whirlwind of a month for Savannah, who released her faith-based book, Mostly What God Does, on February 20. She missed multiple episodes of Today last month while attending stops on her book tour in the U.S.

The book release came after Savannah was the subject of online criticism regarding her interview with Destiny’s Child alum Kelly Rowland. During the segment on February 15, the bestselling author asked multiple questions about Beyoncé’s new country album, while Kelly, 43, was there to promote her new Netflix film, Mea Culpa.

Kelly later walked off the set of the show when she was due to serve as a guest cohost. Some reports indicated that her abrupt exit from the program stemmed from unhappiness with the outdated dressing rooms backstage, while others pointed toward the awkward interview as the reason.

“We need a remodel. We need Extreme Makeover: Today Show Dressing Room Edition,” Savannah told Entertainment Tonight on February 21 after the incident. “We are in a historic studio, 1A. It’s the same studio that has been used for decades. It’s incredible and it’s iconic, but it’s old … You get the good with the bad … If you want history, sometimes you’re gonna have a few little chips of paint coming off the wall.”