Nathan Congleton/NBCCheers to another five years, Savannah Guthrie!
On Friday, Carson Daly, Dylan Dreyer, Willie Geist, Kathie Lee Gifford, Jenna Bush Hager, Sheinelle Jones, Hoda Kotb, Matt Lauer and Al Roker celebrated her five-year anniversary on NBC's Today. "It's flown by!" she said. "Five years and everything has changed—for the better!"
That's an understatement.
In half a decade, Guthrie has proven she can interview anyone from Johnny Depp to President Donald Trump. Viewers loved seeing her fangirl over her favorite people in pop culture, like Duran Duran and Pope Francis. And, off-camera, she got married and welcomed two children.
Today celebrated Guthrie's many accomplishments with an eight-minute retrospective. "I think Savannah is one of the most well-rounded people-slash-personalities on the program," Lauer said of his co-anchor. Gifford praised her "charm" and "humility," while Bush Hager said she's an "awesome" co-worker. "But, more importantly to me," she said, "she's an awesome friend."
In fact, Bush Hager wrote an essay detailing how much she values their relationship.
"I knew nothing about Savannah Guthrie before she sat down next to me in the makeup chair five years ago. I knew nothing about her, even though we had overlapped in Washington, D.C. for several years, knew some of the same people and had even been in the same room at the same time," Bush Hager began. "But after five years working alongside her—and living next to her (yes, we are next door neighbors in New York City), I now know a lot about Savannah."
"I know Savannah leads with the heart. She lights up when she's with her kids. She loves her husband Mike [Feldman], adores her mom, sister and brother, and she loves her friends. (How lucky am I to be one of them?) I know now that we both share an abiding adoration of taquitos and queso (and frankly, all Mexican food). We are both madly in love with Lin-Manuel Miranda (who isn't?) but our love runs deep. So deep we once spent a 30-minute car ride singing the entire Hamilton album at the top of our lungs. We recorded ourselves. It wasn't pretty," Bush Hager said. "We are also in a competition to win Lin's affection via social media. It's a tie so far."
Bush Hager admires Guthrie's work ethic. "Savannah works hard—sometimes so diligently that she leaves parties by 7 p.m. in order to wake up at 3 a.m. to study for interviews. Some call her a grandma. I call her a rock star. But don't be mistaken: Savannah loves a good night out," she blogged. "She loves having fun and laughing with friends (just as long as she's asleep by 10:30)."
The two are so much more than colleagues or workout buddies. "Sometimes, as I watch our daughters play like sisters or when we spend an entire car ride talking about life so rapidly that we barely breathe, I can't believe Savannah and I are new friends, that our friendship just started only five years ago," she said. "And then I'm grateful that this job brought us together."
Guthrie's other colleagues share similarly friendly feelings.
As Kotb said in the video, "She's one of those people who I think just fits."
Like Bush Hager, Daly said he's impressed by Guthrie's professionalism and experience as a broadcast journalist. "You really can get a sense of how talented an anchor is, especially when news breaks," Daly said in the retrospective video, "because there's nowhere to run and hide."
As highlights from Guthrie's past interviews with controversial figures played, Kotb said what Today viewers all know: "If you are sitting across the table from Savannah Guthrie, buckle up."
Guthrie has blossomed in the last five years. "I'm kind of self-conscious, and this show has gotten that right out of me," she explained. "Everyone's in on the joke, and you better be, too!"
Sure, she has her shortcomings—cooking segments among them. "I believe that if forced to, Savannah could cook a decent meal," Roker said. "I don't necessarily have to eat that, but I believe that." And Gifford said she hasn't eaten "anything" Guthrie ever made and "never will."
It's hard to imagine Today without Guthrie. "I walk into this building; I can't believe that it's me," the anchor, 45, admitted. "And they call this work? No way! This is the joy of a lifetime."
After the retrospective video ended, Guthrie and her colleagues celebrated with milkshakes.
(E! and NBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)