How The Today Show's Coverage Of Savannah Guthrie's Mother Is Reportedly Affecting Its Ratings

The Today Show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie has been all over the news over the past week in the 2026 TV schedule, but not because of her work on the morning TV show or because she was covering the Winter Olympics in Italy as intended. Her mother has been missing since late January, resulting in Guthrie's absence from the small screen and plenty of people seemingly tuning in to TODAY for potential updates on the situation. The ratings are in for recent broadcasts, and they're definitely on the rise.

Savannah Guthrie's mother was reported missing on February 1, after last being seen at her home on January 31, leading police to speak to her neighbors. She's believed to have been abducted from her home, per the FBI, and there have been many developments in the case as well as messages from the TODAY anchor and her family in the days since. Updates can be frequent, and viewership totals reported by Variety indicate that many people are getting those updates straight from TODAY, whether they're specifically tuning in for the latest on the co-anchor's situation or not.

According to Nielsen data cited by the outlet, viewership over the five days leading up to February 6 surged by an impressive 23% – a.k.a. 624,000 viewers – compared to this time last year. This places it on top of the competition on morning network television, with an average audience of around 3.32 million viewers. ABC's Good Morning America is second with nearly 2.91 million and CBS in third with 1.84 million for CBS Mornings.

That totals out to TODAY earning 41% of the total morning show viewing audience, with 36% going to GMA and 23% going to CBS Mornings. The NBC offering is also beating the competition in the viewership demographic between the ages of 25 and 54.

All of this said, the rise can't be solely attributed to viewers who are curious about the situation with Savannah Guthrie's mother. TODAY has been airing while NBC and Peacock have also been broadcasting the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, which generally lifts ratings in the morning hours of February and undoubtedly accounts for some of the rises. The Olympics will wrap on February 22 with the Closing Ceremony; it remains to be seen how long TODAY will be covering the Guthrie family's crisis.

Hoda Kotb returned to TODAY with a supportive message for her longtime co-anchor, later bowing out of covering the Olympics. New episodes of TODAY have been opening daily with the latest on the search for Nancy Guthrie, with facts and analyses coming from correspondents like Tom Winter and Liz Kreutz, while co-anchors add commentary.

For her part, Savannah Guthrie has been active on her Instagram account, with messages ranging from thanking fans for their prayers in the family's difficult time to emotional videos with her siblings. A recent update direct from the TODAY figure confirmed "law enforcement is working tirelessly around the clock... trying to find her."

As for TODAY, you can find the latest episodes on weekday mornings starting at 7 a.m. ET on NBC and/or stream them with a Peacock subscription.