Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb’s Tearful ‘Today’ Interview Shows the Complications of Covering a Story So Close to Home
Savannah Guthrie has returned to the airwaves of “Today,” but not as an anchor — as a subject.
Nearly two months into the unimaginable ordeal of her 84-year-old mother Nancy’s kidnapping from her home in Tucson, Guthrie sat down with her colleague, confidant and now emergency stand-in Hoda Kotb for her first public interview addressing her family’s ongoing crisis. Their conversation, airing in two parts Thursday and Friday, is frankly agonizing to watch: both Guthrie and Kotb are tearful throughout, in contrast with the firm composure typically demanded of news anchors. As the two women face one another on a couch, Guthrie contemplates the horrifying possibility that Nancy was targeted “because of me,” calling the scenario “too much to bear.” That both women are beloved, longtime fixtures only makes the contrast from their typical screen personae more striking.
Guthrie gave the interview amid open-ended uncertainty over her potential return to regular hosting duties, which Kotb promised an imminent update on at the segment’s end. The morning show stalwart did discuss, at Kotb’s prompting, her decision to return — for now — from Arizona to New York, citing Nancy’s resilience after her father’s sudden death at 49 as inspiration. (Guthrie also shared it was difficult to find a steady home base for her and her siblings in Tucson on account of the public scrutiny.) But any definitive moves are naturally contingent on Nancy’s case, which hasn’t seen any major updates since a pair of ransom notes Guthrie said she believes were authentic, while also admitting “We don’t know anything.” Mostly, Guthrie’s appearance underscored the impossible position “Today” and its staff have been locked in since January: covering a story they’re also an intimate, inextricable part of, a contradiction only heightened by Guthrie’s first on-air appearance since.
As an interviewer, Kotb didn’t approach Guthrie as an impartial interlocutor, nor could she. After all, the pair have worked side-by-side since Kotb stepped in after Matt Lauer’s ouster in 2017, a highly charged situation their warm chemistry worked to defuse over time. Instead, she approached their conversation as a friend, a term also used frequently in the in-studio segments where Kotb debriefed with co-stars Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Carson Daly. Kotb began by simply asking Guthrie to recount how she learned what had happened; it turns out Guthrie had brought her children to Daly’s home, emphasizing the deep ties among the coworkers.
Kotb’s remaining questions were gentle and empathetic. She asked Guthrie if she felt the prayers fans made in response to an early plea for them on Instagram, and to tell viewers more about Nancy’s life and personality. She did not press her on details about the active investigation, or pretend to have the objective remove that simply cannot exist in a situation this severe. Kotb nonetheless elicited valuable information. Her fellow anchors confessed that even they did not know all of Nancy’s accomplishments, like joining the workforce after being widowed or caring for her brother with Down syndrome. Guthrie, whose Christian faith she’s discussed more openly since her mother’s abduction than at any other point in her public life, shared that she heard God speak to her and assure her that Nancy was with him now. It was her first time explicitly, openly weighing the awful possibility that Nancy, whose physical impairment was already such that it was a struggle to walk down her own driveway and fetch the mail, is now “in Heaven.” Roker even referred to Nancy using the past tense in a heart-tugging aside, saying, “She had this wicked sense of humor.”
But the primary effect of the Guthrie interview is emotional rather than educational. It’s wrenching to watch Guthrie wrestle with guilt and uncertainty in real time, and appropriately strange to see her on the other side of an interaction that’s integral to her profession. Kotb, too, serves a dual role in the segment, as reporter and reassuring presence. Her and Guthrie’s connection is what gives the interview its power, and also differentiates it from either typical “Today” coverage or Guthrie’s previous role in the broadcast. Ironically, the longtime face of “Today” coming back to the show made it harder than ever to envision what its new normal might look like.
Nearly two months into the unimaginable ordeal of her 84-year-old mother Nancy’s kidnapping from her home in Tucson, Guthrie sat down with her colleague, confidant and now emergency stand-in Hoda Kotb for her first public interview addressing her family’s ongoing crisis. Their conversation, airing in two parts Thursday and Friday, is frankly agonizing to watch: both Guthrie and Kotb are tearful throughout, in contrast with the firm composure typically demanded of news anchors. As the two women face one another on a couch, Guthrie contemplates the horrifying possibility that Nancy was targeted “because of me,” calling the scenario “too much to bear.” That both women are beloved, longtime fixtures only makes the contrast from their typical screen personae more striking.
Guthrie gave the interview amid open-ended uncertainty over her potential return to regular hosting duties, which Kotb promised an imminent update on at the segment’s end. The morning show stalwart did discuss, at Kotb’s prompting, her decision to return — for now — from Arizona to New York, citing Nancy’s resilience after her father’s sudden death at 49 as inspiration. (Guthrie also shared it was difficult to find a steady home base for her and her siblings in Tucson on account of the public scrutiny.) But any definitive moves are naturally contingent on Nancy’s case, which hasn’t seen any major updates since a pair of ransom notes Guthrie said she believes were authentic, while also admitting “We don’t know anything.” Mostly, Guthrie’s appearance underscored the impossible position “Today” and its staff have been locked in since January: covering a story they’re also an intimate, inextricable part of, a contradiction only heightened by Guthrie’s first on-air appearance since.
As an interviewer, Kotb didn’t approach Guthrie as an impartial interlocutor, nor could she. After all, the pair have worked side-by-side since Kotb stepped in after Matt Lauer’s ouster in 2017, a highly charged situation their warm chemistry worked to defuse over time. Instead, she approached their conversation as a friend, a term also used frequently in the in-studio segments where Kotb debriefed with co-stars Al Roker, Craig Melvin and Carson Daly. Kotb began by simply asking Guthrie to recount how she learned what had happened; it turns out Guthrie had brought her children to Daly’s home, emphasizing the deep ties among the coworkers.
Kotb’s remaining questions were gentle and empathetic. She asked Guthrie if she felt the prayers fans made in response to an early plea for them on Instagram, and to tell viewers more about Nancy’s life and personality. She did not press her on details about the active investigation, or pretend to have the objective remove that simply cannot exist in a situation this severe. Kotb nonetheless elicited valuable information. Her fellow anchors confessed that even they did not know all of Nancy’s accomplishments, like joining the workforce after being widowed or caring for her brother with Down syndrome. Guthrie, whose Christian faith she’s discussed more openly since her mother’s abduction than at any other point in her public life, shared that she heard God speak to her and assure her that Nancy was with him now. It was her first time explicitly, openly weighing the awful possibility that Nancy, whose physical impairment was already such that it was a struggle to walk down her own driveway and fetch the mail, is now “in Heaven.” Roker even referred to Nancy using the past tense in a heart-tugging aside, saying, “She had this wicked sense of humor.”
But the primary effect of the Guthrie interview is emotional rather than educational. It’s wrenching to watch Guthrie wrestle with guilt and uncertainty in real time, and appropriately strange to see her on the other side of an interaction that’s integral to her profession. Kotb, too, serves a dual role in the segment, as reporter and reassuring presence. Her and Guthrie’s connection is what gives the interview its power, and also differentiates it from either typical “Today” coverage or Guthrie’s previous role in the broadcast. Ironically, the longtime face of “Today” coming back to the show made it harder than ever to envision what its new normal might look like.