Savannah Guthrie ‘TODAY’ show absence due to assignment, not missing mom

Savannah Guthrie was absent from the 'TODAY' show on June 17 because she was on assignment for production meetings on a Wordle game show, not due to her mother's disappearance. Her mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing since January 31, with a suspect identified and a $1 million reward offered.

Getting your Trinity Audio //trinityaudio.ai player ready...Savannah Guthrie was absent from the “TODAY” show Wednesday for professional reasons, though it raised eyebrows amid the more than four-month disappearance of her elderly mother Nancy Guthrie https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/12/nancy-guthrie-tip-grave-mexico-search/ . The 54-year-old broadcast journalist – who returned to the NBC morning show https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/04/06/savannah-guthrie-return-today-show/ in April – was “on assignment,” https://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/why-savannah-guthrie-is-absent-from-today-show/ per co-anchor Craig Melvin, and therefore replaced by Jenna Bush Hager during the June 17 episode, Us Weekly reports. Melvin elaborated that his colleague was “starting production meetings on the Wordle game show https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2026/06/17/savannah-guthrie-today-show-absent/90586378007/ coming to NBC later this year.” Guthrie announced last month that the show had been picked up in February. The Daily News has reached out to a “TODAY” representative. Guthrie has been making headlines perhaps more than she’s reported them https://www.nydailynews.com/2026/02/21/today-tmz-take-center-stage-nancy-guthrie-abduction/ following the suspected abduction of her 84-year-old mother Nancy, who was last seen at her Tucson, Ariz. home on Jan. 31. Guthrie took a leave of absence from “TODAY” amid the initial frantic search for the matriarch, during which TMZ and other media outlets received alleged ransom notes. Just last week, volunteers in Mexico began looking for Nancy https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/06/12/nancy-guthrie-tip-grave-mexico-search/ after receiving an anonymous tip on Mother’s Day, which said to check an unmarked grave near the border town of Nogales. In the days and weeks after Nancy disappeared, the FBI released disturbing doorbell camera footage of a masked man outside her home in the hours after she was last seen. They eventually identified the suspect as a male with an average build, standing between 5-feet-9 and 5-feet-10. The video showed the suspect wearing a ski mask, gloves, holster, and a 25-liter Ozark Trail Hiker Backpack https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-Hiker-Backpack-25-Liter-Black-Polyester-Adult-Teen/1471296137?classType=VARIANT&athbdg=L1103 . The Guthrie family offered a $1 million reward in conjunction with the $100,000 reward offered by the FBI and another $2,500 from the 88-CRIME tip line, which also received an anonymous $100,000 reward.