Savannah Guthrie Returns, and It Almost Looked Normal, Until She Greeted The Crowd Outside

February first. It has been over two months now and Savannah Guthrie has been away from her seat at the Today Show that entire time. But today she told us about a week ago, but she circled this day, April sixth, as the day she was going to return, and in fact she was there, and she was in place, certainly had the TV on here ready to watch, and had it on several minutes before seven o'clock, and so I got to see Savannah Guthrie before she actually went on

the Today Show. You watch your local affiliates, NBC affiliates. They'll do a tease with the national anchors a few minutes before at the top of the hour at seven o'clock Eastern time, and so I wasn't thinking about that and didn't really register it. I'm sitting doing something else and boom, she pops up on the screen, and it was almost, I don't know, it was weird and surprising just to see her on television again, to see her in TV attire again, and she was wearing a bright

yellow today, and to see her smiling. But the banter with the local New York anchors was very normal. There wasn't a big welcome or good to see you again. It was business as usual. And I think that kind of set the tone for what was going to happen on the Today Show. And I think it was apparent from the very beginning that they were trying, really, really trying to make this look like business as you usual, We're welcoming somebody back. But they did, and they didn't

spend a lot of time talking about the past. They didn't spend a lot of time or any time talking

about Savannah's mother really in that whole case. So the show opens at the top, and it threw me, given all we've seen her go through that when they did the cold open at seven o'clock when the Today Show starts where they're you know, the cold open is when they're teasing the stories that are coming up and some music playing underneath, and you hear their voices going back and forth, and you hear Savannah's voice having voiced this

cold open teasing the UCLA women winning the national championship last night, and the song that was playing under it was California Love by Tupac and Dre And so for whatever reason, when I heard that, I'm like, oh, okay, they really are going to make this feel as normal as possible. There was just something about that song and kind of just juxtaposing that and that fun and that image and that sound up against what we have been seeing and

hearing from Savannah Guthrie the past couple of months. It's clear they're turning a page there at the Today Show. So the show opened after the cold open, you see her sitting there with Craig and they don't say much. They say hello. But the only thing she did or said to in some way allude to what's been happening. She said, it is good to be home. Here we go,

ready or not, Let's do the news. And yes, you could see a little nerves were there, but she wanted to just get it going, and Craig touched her hand and said welcome home to her, and the show went right on. It went right into what's happening in Iran, what's happening with the Artemis folks, what's happening with the National Championship. It just went right on into being a

normal Today's show broadcast. And they had guests on in that first half hour as well, doing I think that it was a former astronaut and I think a military guy there as well. But they didn't say welcome back or good to see you, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were given that advice, just please don't do that. We're just gonna treat it as business as usual, and

sure enough they the guests didn't say anything. The only time that we did hear something else in that first hour was from Al Al when it was time to toss to him for weather at about seven seventeen or whatever time it is, and they tossed to him. They have this wider shot where you see Al Roker and you see everybody sitting at the desk kind of in a distance, and he just says, I just like looking over there is what he said. So it's it's clear

and it's the right thing. I'm sure she wants to move on and do things normal and be back at work feels good to her. But the show felt very normal, if you will. There was even anchor banter. She told a couple of jokes throughout, and they were kind of typical co stuff you might hear in morning television. At one point they were talking about the Artemis pilots and she cracked a joke about, Wow, they must to have a really good WiFi up there. That's a good That's

very much a TV anchor joke. That's awesome. So everything did feel very much normal throughout the only time I guess really that it did that things did feel different, and this was the part that it left room to be emotional. There is a part of the show where they all walk outside and they greet people who are out there with signs and whatnot, and they had shown some of these people earlier on. There were plenty of people out there who did have signs saying welcome back

to Savannah. People had t shirts on with messages of love and support, and quite frankly there were other people out there who had signs of just saying, hey, it's my birthday, So even part of that felt normal. But it's I think it's eight point thirty. They do this. They do this at the Today Show. All the anchors go out and it's a lot of them. I'd be seven them. I got to count right, six or seven

of them, so big group ends up standing outside. This time, the group was standing out there and you see that shot, but Savannah's not there, and my first thought was, oh, they let her skip this or she didn't want to be outside with the crowd. No, no, no, no. They actually showed a shot of the first group and then they showed cut to a different shot of Savannah and her coat. But she's walking hand in hand with Jenna Bush, who was walking her out, and they walk out together.

Now I'm not sure how they usually do this. I didn't think that was the way, but it seemed like a special moment and she wanted some support and they walked out hand in hand. Forgive me, I don't watch the show every day. I don't think that's normal necessarily, but it did seem like a special moment and she was walking out with somebody and with support in that moment.

But they walked down hand in hand and Savannah God love, and I'm sure it felt good to her to see people, to see smiling faces and everybody's I mean, their hands were on their hearts in the crowd, they were buzzing. It was excited to see her back at work. That was actually really really cool. She agree, she didn't go

over it didn't spend a lot of time. Actually said some thank yous to the crowd and for the messages, and then they went on about business once again, standing there teasing what's coming up, and at some point, I can't remember which anchor it was, was teasing something that was coming up, and that was a graphic on screen.

But then you heard Savannah and something else going on, and they cut away from that picture that was on screen because Savannah was god choked up with something she saw with somebody in particular there and a message they had and I believe that was the woman had a T shirt on. But this was the only moment that we really saw throughout that was really in a more emotional and fuller way acknowledging what Savannah Guthrie has been through over the past couple of months what that show.

Also to a certain degree, this is a family member of theirs that they have been without and know she has been in pain, and today was the day that she was able to return. But this was we did hear from her. We did hear from Savannah yesterday on Easter Sunday. We heard from her in a message that was part painful, but it was also a message that she felt a lot of people also needed to hear. Stare all right, continuing here on Amy and TJ. No

Amy on this one. Just stuck with TJ today, but wanted to get on and give you our impressions of what we saw with Savannah got three, returning to the Today Show in her seat for the first time since February first, when her mom disappeared. That disappearance, as we know, according to authorities, was in fact an abduction. But still she's returned to work now, not having any idea what

happened to her mom. Where she is and Savannah Guthrie had to get on television in front of millions today and go about it as business and as usual, and to his great degree, she pulled that off. The show pulled that off. Commend them over there to today's show for what they've had to adjust to, and you know, a heads up, not a heads up, but a shout out to Hodecanby as well, who has been there in support of who stepped in and said, yes, I will come back and sit in that chair as long as

you all need me to. And she was the one as well who conducted the one on one with Savannah that we saw last week. But Savannah, we heard from her yesterday as well. Savannah Guthrie had a video message that aired at a church here in New York, and it was an Eastern message and it was painful to hear to a certain degree that she wondered why her and she felt at times that she had been abandoned

by God and it questioned her faith. She told that story but then ultimately came her back around to the message that her faith is still there, her faith is still strong. As we found out more and more, I own Savannah for years, I never knew about how steeped in faith she was. But we've learned more about that over the past couple of months. Not just about her

and she was raised that way. As we've learned more and more about Nancy Guthrie, who there have been still I can say, no significant developments about that case in quite some time. We haven't heard from the Sheriff's department out there with anything significant. He does interviews here or there, and people are are grasping at straw Is trying to figure out and pluck out what he's saying and does this mean this? And there just have not been headlines

and there have not been developments in that case. But Savannah Guthrie is back. She is back at work and at this point, you all, she is just moving on, certainly hoping for some news at some point. But it's weird to go through. As you can imagine, she's mourning the loss of someone and does not know right now how she's lost it. This would be difficult if her mother had passed away and she'd just come from her funeral, but she's having to do something else without the knowledge.

So I just want to hop on give your thoughts impressions. Didn't know if you got to see it today, but Savannah gou three is back as always. We appreciate you spending some time here with us. For my dear Amy Roboc, I'm TJ. Holtz talk to