Savannah Guthrie was absent from the June 19 instalment of the Today Show and, according to her co-stars, it's because she is focusing on a new NBC television project.
Craig Melvin was joined by Laura Jarrett, who filled in for Savannah, on Friday's episode. "Laura Jarret is in for Savannah as Savannah starts production meetings on the Wordle game show that;s coming to NBC later this year," revealed Craig. "It's always good to have you."
"It's always good to be here," replied Laura. "Usually I feel bad because Laura has to work six days, she's got Saturday, but not tomorrow. You're off tomorrow," said Craig.
© Getty Images"You're promoting my show not being on, thank you so much," replied Laura. "Because we've got that Royal Ascot," confirmed Craig.
© Getty ImagesSavannah Guthrie's new TV show
The half-hour game show will be produced by The New York Times, which has owned Wordle since 2022 and began releasing it as part of their Games app, and will be executive produced by Jimmy Fallon, and hosted by Savannah. The show was in development for apparently two and a half years.
The mom-of-two is a huge fan of the game, even saying on the show she had a group chat called "Wordle Nerdles" with her co-anchor Carson Daly and his wife Siri Pinter.
They filmed a pilot for the series last year, and the main show will begin filming in Manchester, England over the summer. Savannah revealed that filming was supposed to start earlier, but due to her mom Nancy Guthrie's disappearance, the production team helped push it back.
© GC Images"I have to say, we've been working on this for a really long time, and actually we just found out in February that we got picked up and we were supposed to shoot in March," she shared.
"I just want to say a quick thank you to NBC and to Jimmy and his production company and The New York Times and the studio, Universal. Because when everything happened with me and my family, they just stopped everything and said, 'We'll wait for you'."
She continued: "And Hollywood is a really tough business, as you know, and I didn't expect that and I just want to say thank you, it means so much to me."
In a press release, Jimmy said: "I feel very honored to be working with Savannah Guthrie on this show. Savannah has that rare combination of intelligence, charm, and warmth that makes everyone feel instantly welcome. And she obviously knows how to host a show. I am super proud and happy and I think we developed a solid gamer for prime-time."
