Savannah Guthrie Suddenly Exits ‘Today’ Show Early As Hoda Kotb Remains Absent
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Savannah Guthrie abruptly left ‘Today’ early on Feb. 28, and her co-anchors revealed why during the live broadcast.
Savannah Guthrie, 51, left TODAY early on Tuesday, February 28 after she tested positive for COVID-19 during the live morning broadcast. After Savannah didn’t appear on the NBC morning show after 7:30 AM ET, her co-anchor Sheinelle Jones revealed what happened with Savannah 30 minutes later. “By the way, it has been an interesting morning for us,” Sheinelle said, before she delivered the news while standing in between Al Roker and Carson Daly.
Savannah Guthrie had to leave the show this morning after testing positive for COVID-19 during the live TODAY broadcast. pic.twitter.com/6TYJlr0bs5
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) February 28, 2023
Sheinelle continued, “As we said, Savannah left early, she wasn’t feeling great, so she took a COVID test. It came back positive. So, as soon as we found out, she rushed home to rest up.” Sheinelle showed her support for Savannah, saying, “So Savannah, we love you, wishing you a speedy recovery.”
Savannah is expected to miss the rest of the week on TODAY as she recovers. The mom-of-two previously tested positive for the virus both in May 2022 and in January 2022. Her latest absence from the show comes as her co-anchor Hoda Kotb, 58, continues to be off the air, for reasons we still don’t know.
Hoda had a “planned absence” last Monday, for President’s Day, as reported by Decider, however she was also M.I.A. on Feb. 24. On Friday’s episode of TODAY, Savannah revealed to viewers that, “Hoda’s off today” and later added, “Hoda’s got the morning off.” Hoda has been temporarily replaced by Sheinelle alongside Jenna Bush Hager for Today With Hoda & Jenna.
Despite her absence, Hoda has been active on social media in the last week, with a plethora of cryptic messages. On Feb. 27, she shared a message on Instagram about “hope” and captioned it with two heart emojis. “Choose Hope”, the painting read amid a backdrop of a sunset sky. A few days earlier, Hoda shared a few messages on Instagram about “strong women” and “brave people.” At this time, it is unclear when Hoda will return to TODAY.