Hoda Kotb returned to Studio 1A to cover the disappearance of Savannah Guthrie’s mom, Nancy Guthrie, Friday morning.
One year after leaving her “Today” show post, the 61-year-old opened up to viewers how “helpless” she and her former colleagues feel amid the crisis.
“We’re all so close with her and we all want to help her,” Kotb explained, remembering how Savannah supported her during daughter Hope’s hospitalization in 2023.
“I’m looking at us and I was thinking, who was first in the hospital when Hope was sick? Savannah,” the former “Dateline” correspondent, 54, noted. “Who hopped on a plane for [Carson Daly’s] parents? Savannah.”
She pointed out that Savannah “was sitting by” Sheinelle Jones’ late husband Uche Ojeh’s cancer battle and helped Craig Melvin “when [his] brother passed.”
Kotb, who left NBC in January 2025, stressed that Savannah “was [always] there” for her “Today” show “family.”
She noted that since “love is patient,” she can be “patient with prayers.”
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Melvin, 46, chimed in, agreeing with Kotb’s “feeling of helplessness.”
However, he insisted, “We’re not helpless because it’s prayer and hope. Prayer and hope. Prayer and hope.”
Savannah has been off the air since Monday, when news broke that her mother had been reported missing from her Tucson, Ariz., home over the weekend.
The Daytime Emmy winner has also pulled out of covering the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Nancy is believed to have been kidnapped, with former CIA member and FBI special agent Tracy Walder telling Page Six she had likely been “stalked for some time.”
The FBI has teamed up with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, and a $50,000 reward is on the table for “information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance.”
A purported ransom note asking for billions in Bitcoin has given investigators a “radius around Tucson,” TMZ founder Harvey Levin claimed on CNN Thursday night.
Savannah and her siblings — Camron Guthrie and Annie Guthrie — have pleaded with their mom’s alleged captors in multiple videos, saying they are “ready to talk” but wish for “proof of life.”
Melvin and Jones, 47, played the family’s tearful plea on Thursday’s show, saying, “Most days, of course, Savannah greets you right here from this desk. This morning, our dear friend has a very different message.”
Two days prior, Jones admitted she and her colleagues are “rattled” and having “trouble sleeping” as the desperate search for Nancy intensifies.
Security presence, notably, has been ramped up at NBC’s studio.
