Savannah Guthrie Announces Return Date to ‘Today’ Show

Savannah Guthrie has marked an official date for her return to TODAY amid the search for her mother, Nancy Guthrie.

The TODAY show co-anchor will make her way back to Studio 1A on April 6, Hoda Kotb announced on Friday as the final part of her emotional conversation with Savannah aired on the NBC morning show.

“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,” Savannah told Kotb of her plan to return to 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.”

Savannah noted that when “times are hard, you want to be with your family,” referencing her TODAY colleagues. “And so I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I’ll belong anymore, but I would like to try. I would like to try.”

“I’m not going to be the same,” she admitted. “But maybe it’s like that old poem: ‘More beautiful in the broken places.’”

Savannah previously paid an off-camera visit to her TODAY family on March 5, thanking them for their support and encouragement during this difficult time. “I really wanted to come and see everybody,” she told Hoda of the visit. “I just love this beautiful place that we call home, where we get to come and be every day. And I know how much people have prayed for me and loved me.”

“All the people that you see on TV, and then all the people that you don’t,” she continued. “All the notes and messages that I have received are just so beautiful. I just wanted to be with my family. They’re my family, too.”

Savannah’s April 6 return will mark her first in-studio appearance on the show since Jan. 30, just two days before her 84-year-old mother was reported missing. Police in Tucson, Ariz., and the FBI have been investigating the identity of a masked man who appeared on Nancy’s doorbell camera prior to her abduction.

The Guthrie family is offering a $1 million reward for Nancy’s return, and the FBI is offering an additional $100,000 reward. People who have information about Nancy’s abduction or whereabouts are encouraged to call 1-800-CALL-FBI.