Hoda Kotb interviewed Guthrie for a tearful TV segment on “Today,” the broadcaster’s first since Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance earlier this year.
NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie has spoken out on her mother Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance in her first — and highly emotional — televised interview since her 84-year-old mom’s kidnapping 53 days ago.
Hoda Kotb, Guthrie’s former Today show colleague, returned to the studio to cover for her friend and professional partner amid Nancy’s disappearance, with Kotb announcing on Wednesday’s edition of the talk show that she sat down with Savannah to conduct a tear-filled interview that will air in two parts on Thursday and Friday.
“Someone needs to do the right thing. We are in agony,” Savannah said through tears in a preview of the interview. “It’s unbearable. And to think of what she went through. I wake up every night in the middle of the night, every night, and in the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable, but those thoughts demand to be thought. And I will not hide my face. She needs to come home now.”
Kotb also fights back tears in the interview, at one point holding her hand up to her mouth as she watches her friend speak.
Back in the studio, Kotb confirmed to her colleagues — including Craig Melvin, Carson Daly, and Al Roker — that she’s doing alright after the taxing conversation, and observed “a desperation and also a steeliness about Savannah” in the moment.
“She’s hoping that somebody, whoever this person is, will see something and say something, and as you’ll see in the coming days, she talks about so many things,” Kotb — who retired from Today in early 2025 — said. “She talks about the investigation, she talks about her faith, and she talks about how she’s getting through.”
Added Daly, “It’s gut-wrenching to watch somebody you love so much still, post-50 days of this tragic event, in this tortured limbo state, yet to still show so much resilience and grace among it all.”
In an interview on Monday, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos sheriff told local news station KOLD in Arizona that investigators now believe “something occurred” on Jan. 11 — a date that precedes Nancy’s disappearance by about three weeks.
Nanos and his team have combed the area for information leading up to Nancy’s abduction from her Tucson, Ariz., home. She was last seen at her property on the evening of Jan. 31. Authorities were previously able to obtain one piece of footage of a suspect removing Nancy’s doorbell camera from her home.
A public information officer for the department previously told Entertainment Weekly that “investigators believe she was taken from the home against her will, possibly in the middle of the night. Taken against her will includes possible kidnapping or abduction.”
On Feb. 10, the FBI released video and images of a masked individual outside the front door of Nancy’s home, but no suspects have officially been identified.
The Guthrie family additionally upped their offered reward for Nancy’s return, which now stands at $1 million. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI urged those with information to contact them at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Watch Guthrie’s first televised interview about her mother’s disappearance in the Today clip above.
