The Real Reason Savannah Suddenly Left Today Again After Report She Has a Code Word to ‘Immediately Pull Her off the Air’
Just three weeks after abruptly leaving Today mid-show, Savannah Guthrie made another unexpected exit. During the Wednesday, May 6 broadcast, she left before the show ended, prompting her co-anchor, Craig Melvin, to tell the viewers, “Savannah had to leave a little early. She’ll be right back tomorrow, though.”
Guthrie did return to the Today anchor desk for Thursday, May 7 broadcast. While she hasn’t publicly commented on why she left early, a source told Page Six that she left “for some sort of appointment, and her exit had nothing to do with her mom.”
Her 84-year-old mother, Nancy Guthrie, has been missing since Jan. 31, 2026. Police believe she was abducted from her Arizona home in the middle of the night, though they have not yet identified a suspect or motive. The reward for information about Nancy’s disappearance is up to $1 million.
According to an April 2026 report from The Daily Mail, NBC allegedly created a secret code phrase to alert Guthrie of any urgent developments in her mother’s case while she’s live on air. If producers tell Guthrie she’s “needed off set,” that means there’s a major update in the ongoing investigation.
“We would pull her immediately, mid-segment if we had to,” an insider told the outlet. “She would understand that there was news about her mom and we’d take her into an office and tell her, at the same time that another anchor would report it as a breaking story.”
They continued, “We would never in a million years have her report on the developments unless she wanted to. She knows if one of the producers tells her she’s ‘needed off set’ that there’s a development.”
Guthrie had previously stepped away from the Today show for an extended period to be with her family amid Nancy’s kidnapping. When she returned on April 6, Guthrie said it was “good to be back home.”
NBC expects Guthrie to remain with the show full-time again moving forward, but a source told The Daily Mail that the network is reportedly willing to give her more time off if she needs it.
“If she isn’t feeling it, or needs more time off, she will be given it,” they explained. “Whether Hoda would be the one to replace her is another conversation. They would love to have Savannah back full-time, but if she has to leave, they will allow her, but they anticipate she is back for good.”
