Craig Melvin Absent This Week From ‘Today’: His Replacement Revealed

Craig Melvin won’t be behind the TODAY show desk this week as he heads off on a “well-deserved” break.

On Thursday, Melvin announced alongside co-host Savannah Guthrie that he would be taking a brief hiatus from the anchor desk beginning Monday. Guthrie, who recently returned to TODAY on April 6 after months away, said at the time that Melvin was “heading off on a very well-deserved vacation” after “holding it down here for a long time” without her.

“So you’re gonna have a spring break,” Guthrie added. “And Monday we’re gonna try a new host here.”

Melvin, who is expected to return to the NBC morning show on April 20, affirmed that he wouldn’t be turning on his television during the break, as Guthrie agreed, “You’re not supposed to watch on your vacation.”

Guthrie will be joined this week by former co-anchor Hoda Kotb, who will fill in for Melvin during his time off. Kotb originally stepped away from TODAY in January 2025, but returned multiple times over the past few months to fill in for Savannah, who was spending time with family amid the search for her mother, Nancy Guthrie.

The 84-year-old was reported missing from her Arizona home on Feb. 1 after being seen by family the night before. Police are still investigating Nancy’s abduction, with the FBI releasing images of an armed and masked suspect seen outside of Nancy’s home on the night she disappeared.

When Savannah returned to TODAY on April 6, she shared that it was “good to be home,” telling the plaza crowd later, “You guys have been so beautiful. I’ve received so many letters, so much kindness to me and my family. We feel it. We feel your prayers, so thank you so much.”

Prior to her return, Savannah told Kotb that she was determined to return to work, despite her family’s ongoing tragedy. “It’s hard to imagine doing it because it’s such a place of joy and lightness, and I can’t come back and try to be something that I’m not,” she said in an emotional sit-down interview on TODAY. “But I can’t not come back, because it’s my family. I think it’s part of my purpose right now.”

“I want to smile. And when I do, it will be real,” she continued. “I will have joy. And my joy will be my protest. My joy will be my answer. And being there is joyful. And when it’s not, I’ll say so. And I have been so grateful to have this family. I consider this my family, my greater family. … I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore, but I would like to try. I would like to try.”