Savannah Guthrie’s ongoing absence from Today led to a major casting change. The show brought in a few familiar faces to sit at the news desk on Monday, March 18.
Weekend Today’s Laura Jarrett joined Craig Melvin to broadcast the news at the start of the episode. Along with Savannah, 52, Hoda Kotb was also missing from the show. Weekend Today’s Peter Alexander joined the duo during the episode to help out.
“Thanks for starting off the week with us! We’ve got Laura Jarrett with us while Savannah and Hoda are taking time off with their families!” Craig, 44, told viewers at the top of the hour.
Al Roker, Dylan Dreyer and Carson Daly were also on hand later on in the broadcast. It is typically pretty rare to see Laura, 40, and Peter, 47, appear on the program during the week. But, it’s been happening more frequently as the regular weekday hosts have taken days off to focus on their other projects.
Savannah is currently on hiatus from Today as she took some time off to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary with her husband, Mike Feldman. She ended up also taking a bit of a social media pause after setting out on her getaway over the weekend.
“This was us — 10 years ago today! And this is us now. I love you now and forever @feldmike,” the journalist captioned a carousel of photos on March 15.
She returned to social media on March 18 to share a post about her new book, Mostly What God Does.
“A friend sent me this from the airport bookstore! The real live book in the wild!!! I have yet to see it for myself in a bookstore so this is exciting for me,” she captioned the photo of her book on a shelf at the airport.
It was not immediately made clear when Savannah plans to return to Today. The legal analyst, who is a mom to kids Vale and Charles, has been making her rounds on her book tour as well as several promotional appearances for the faith-based project since its February 20 release.
“I’m really passionate about this, and I hope it will be full of love and happiness for everyone,” Savannah said of the project.
Hoda also recently released her latest book, Hope Is a Rainbow, which was inspired by her youngest daughter, Hope.
“Hope delights in rainbows and whenever I say, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ ‘A rainbow!’ It’s the beautiful colors, it appears before you, it’s magical, and that is the image that personifies her,” Hoda, who is also a mom to daughter Haley, told Today.com after the March 5 release.
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