‘Today’ Host Craig Melvin Returns to Studio 11 Days Following Coronavirus Quarantine

Craig Melvin has officially returned to the 3rd Hour of Today following an 11-day self-quarantine due to a coronavirus scare onset. Melvin made his return to Studio 1A Wednesday morning, again taking over the daily broadcast. Meanwhile, his co-host Al Roker continued to broadcast from his dining room.

“Welcome to the 3rd Hour of Today,” Melvin kicked off the show. “I’m Craig, back here in Studio 1A after a couple of weeks at home.”

Introducing Roker, who assured fans that he is doing “fine,” Melvin went on to discuss what it felt like to be back in the studio after nearly two weeks away.

“[It’s] surreal,” Melvin said upon his return. “Everything about it is surreal. The drive in, just about every other part of this country right now, streets are empty, sidewalks are empty. You know this studio is usually teaming with people. It is me and [two other people]. That’s it. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“We’ll get through it,” he continued. “We’ll get through it.”

Melvin had first teased that he would be back in the studio earlier that morning, sharing a behind-the-scenes look of his intro for the upcoming segment and his Today coffee mug sitting at his desk.

“Good to be back in the studio,” he wrote.

Both Melvin and Roker had been pulled from the 3rd Hour of Today, as well as Roker being pulled from the earlier segments, after a staffer tested positive for coronavirus earlier in the month.

“Personal note, for this show: Last night we learned that a colleague of ours on the third hour of Today has tested positive for COVID-19, the novel coronavirus,” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie announced on March 16. “So out of an abundance of caution, Craig and Al have taken the morning off, so we can trace their contacts, see what’s going on with them. We promise to keep you posted. Both are fine right now. They feel good. But caution is the order of the day.”

Since that announcement, Guthrie, too, has begun to co-anchor from a studio set up in the basement of her home. Kotb, meanwhile, has continued to appear in the studio.