Savannah Guthrie is weeks into a break from NBC's "Today" show to film a new Wordle game show, and her former co-anchor Hoda Kotb just showed up to remind viewers the bond between them hasn't faded.
Kotb, 61, posted a photo to Instagram on Thursday showing the two women sitting side-by-side on an outdoor couch, arms around each other. Her caption was brief: "My favorite place... next to you ❤️ @savannahguthrie." The image landed roughly three weeks into Guthrie's absence from the morning show, a stretch she announced on July 16 when she told viewers the filming would keep her away for "a few weeks."
The Wordle game show, produced by "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon, 51, was announced in May with Guthrie as host. Fallon tapped her after she impressed in a pilot taping. The show is slated to premiere in 2027.
Fallon, who told Page Six why he chose Guthrie, framed the decision as a straightforward one:
"We were looking for the perfect host for this. We needed someone who looks like they play Wordle, someone who knows how to run a show."
He described Guthrie as "amazing" in the pilot. Guthrie, for her part, sounded eager to get rolling.
"We're going to shoot the whole season, and we're super excited. Cannot wait for everyone to see it."
The game show break is a lighter chapter in what has been an extraordinarily difficult stretch for Guthrie. Her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, disappeared from her Tucson, Arizona, home on February 1. Doorbell camera footage captured a masked man on her doorstep in the early morning hours. Authorities believe she was taken against her will.
The FBI released the recovered footage, which showed the masked individual carrying a black Ozark Trail backpack and what appeared to be a holstered handgun. He was seen attempting to disable or cover the camera at 1:47 a.m. Nancy's pacemaker made its last sync with her Apple devices around 2:30 a.m., Fox News reported, giving investigators a narrow window for when she may have been taken. Her watch and iPhone were found inside the home.
Bloodstain pattern analysis at the scene revealed what a retired analyst from the Shelby County Medical Examiner's Office called "a drip trail", a continuous source of blood dripping from an object or a person, suggesting Nancy may have been physically harmed during the abduction, National Review reported.
Savannah Guthrie left the "Today" show immediately. She stayed in Arizona with her family for months. Hoda Kotb, who had exited NBC the year before after 26 years, returned to fill in during the first two months of the crisis, a gesture that said more about their relationship than any Instagram caption.
In late March, roughly eight weeks into the search, Guthrie gave her first sit-down interview. She chose Kotb. The two had co-hosted "Today" together from 2018 to 2025, and the trust between them was evident in what Guthrie was willing to say on camera.
Guthrie described the family's anguish in terms that left little room for interpretation. The New York Post reported her words:
"We are in agony. It is unbearable."
She added: "She needs to come home, now. Someone needs to do the right thing." Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos, who had faced mounting criticism over the fruitless search, publicly urged whoever took Nancy to "just give her up" and drop her at a clinic or hospital.
Multiple ransom notes demanding millions in bitcoin were sent to media outlets during the investigation. At least one demand was traced to a fraudulent actor, who was arrested. The ransom notes drew scrutiny from criminal profilers and produced only limited new leads for investigators.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Heath Yonke addressed the notes directly: "We are aware of a ransom letter that was sent to the local media and then to national outlets. As with every lead, we are taking it seriously."
Guthrie came back to the "Today" anchor desk on April 6, her first in-studio appearance since January 30, two days before her mother vanished. She told viewers she wasn't sure she could do it.
"I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I'll belong anymore, but I would like to try."
She also said something that landed harder: "I will not let whoever did this take my children's mother from them." The Guthrie family offered a $1 million reward for information leading to Nancy's recovery.
By August 1, six months after her mother's disappearance, Guthrie posted an emotional video plea. She addressed whoever might know something directly:
"Do the right thing. If you know anything, anything at all, please come forward."
The case remains unresolved. Arizona monsoon rains and ongoing investigative work have produced incremental developments, but Nancy Guthrie has not been found.
Guthrie's absence also meant she was not on set when a separate incident rattled the "Today" show. A man described as "crazed" confronted co-host Craig Melvin on the studio set. The intruder was later hit with a slew of hate crime charges. The specifics of those charges have not been detailed in public reporting beyond the initial filings.
Taken together, the past year at "Today" has been defined less by ratings battles or morning-show rivalries than by a kidnapping that remains unsolved, a family still searching for answers, and a host trying to hold her professional life together while living through every parent's worst fear in reverse.
Kotb's Instagram post, two old colleagues on a couch, arms around each other, was a small, warm moment. But the weight behind it is anything but small. Guthrie has earned every quiet hour she can get.
