‘Today’ hosts on anchoring while physically separated
NBC’s Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie reflect on these unprecedented times.
A new “Today“has arrived amid a quest for a different tomorrow.
Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie are currently co-anchoring NBC’s morning show with miles between them as the world grapples with a global pandemic, among a fight for racial equality following the death of George Floyd, who was killed while in police custody on May 25.
What’s it like anchoring days of history-making news while being physically separated due to COVID-19?
Kotb appears from Studio 1A at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Guthrie started working from her residence in upstate New York in March. Both are unsure of when they’ll be reunited in person.
Guthrie acknowledges “Our whole show is different” amid today’s top stories and “essentially geared toward” the health crisis and issues stemming from the death of Floyd, who died after a police officer knelt on his neck in Minneapolis for more than 8 minutes.
Guthrie and Kotb recognize how momentous the present is.
“I feel like there’s been a light that has sort of been just shining on the shadows of things that needed to be exposed for a long time,” says Kotb. “I feel a wave in the country that I haven’t felt before ever, and it struck me.”
“I mean think about today, just today, think about all the police reform everyone’s talking about – the Republicans are talking about it, the Democrats are talking about it,” she adds. “They’re banning chokeholds... I feel like people are listening, and people are open to change.”
“I feel like we’re in the middle of two moments that we’re going to be reading about in the history books,” says Guthrie. “The George Floyd case absolutely feels like a sea change. It feels different and it feels different to people who have covered these issues for many, many years.”
Despite their physical difference, Guthrie says the “Today” hosts still feel connected.
“We’ve always felt like a family,” she says. “It feels like that more than ever. Even though we do a Virtual Plaza and Hoda and I are across the miles, we still feel really close, maybe we feel closer. And I think that’s ‘cause when times get tough, good families pull together, and I feel like that’s what we’re trying really hard to do.”
Amid a battle against racial injustice, Guthrie encourages people to “listen and let’s all push a little further.“
She sees the present as “a moment of reflection, and I think it takes courage to reflect and courage to be honest with yourself, and it takes courage for the country to be honest with itself, and I hope that that’s what ultimately comes of this: honesty and change.”
Kotb, like many others, has turned to books amid the call for change. “I’m talking to Joel (Schiffman, her fiancé) all the time, we’re talking to friends,” she says. “I (say), ‘Joel, don’t you want to be better?’ I want to be better, and I feel like we all can be.“
Guthrie says Floyd has been a topic in 5-year-old daughter Vale’s kindergarten class, and that mother and daughter have had conversations.
“You want to talk to them about it in a way that is not too scary for their age to handle,” says the mom of two, “but
they can understand more than we think.“
“Its an eye-opening experience,” she adds, “because when Vale and I were talking and talking about how George Floyd was treated, we use the words fair and unfair ‘cause those are words that she understands.”
Guthrie says they also talk about the intended role of police. “But then you realize that’s a conversation, that again I’m privileged to have,” she says. “A black mother with a black child might not be able to say those same things, and that’s the point. And those are some of the realizations that are being had around the country, if they hadn’t been already.”
While Kotb hasn’t had a conversation with her daughters due to their ages – Haley is 3 and Hope is 1 – she spoke with kids about racism and Black Lives Matter for the June 8 episode of “Today.” The segment moved her.
The children present were “10, 11, 12 and the oldest was 15,” she recalls. They advised diversifying friendships, Kotb says. “They all said the same thing: make your circle bigger. Just widen your circle out, and then you’ll understand.”
Kotb was visibly touched on a “Today” episode in March, after interviewing New Orleans Saints quarterback
“I feel like there’s been a light that has sort of been just shining on the shadows of things that needed to be exposed for a long time.” Hoda Kotb
Drew Brees, who, with his wife Brittany, pledged $5,000,000 to aide in coronavirus relief for Louisiana. Kotb, who previously worked for CBS affiliate WWL in The Big Easy, broke down after telling Brees, “Drew, we love ya.”
More recently, the athlete, who Kotb has known for years, has received heat for remarks he made critical of kneeling protests during the national anthem. He has since issued apologies and addressed President Donald Trump in an Instagram post explaining he now understands the protest done at games “is not an issue about the American flag.”
Kotb says she and Brees have had “a couple of kind of private conversations.”
“I thought he gave an apology, and I’ve known him for a long time, and I think that some people misstep and then some people right the ship,” she says. “So, I’m just curious to see how it will all be received going forward. I’ve known him for many, many, many years, and I think you judge somebody based on their life, as opposed to one final moment.”