Today fans may soon see more of Savannah Guthrie on their screens.
Multiple outlets reported on Tuesday, October 7, that Guthrie has been tapped to host a new NBC game show based on the popular New York Times game Wordle. The series, currently in development, comes from Universal Television Alternative Studio and Jimmy Fallon‘s Electric Hot Dog company, with the NY Times also serving as a production partner.
Fallon will also serve as an executive producer on the show, which has not yet received a premiere date. According to several outlets, the series’ pilot episode is currently filming in the U.K.
News of the game show comes after Guthrie missed the Monday, October 6, and Tuesday, October 7, episodes of Today. An explanation for Guthrie’s absence was not shared on the show. Sheinelle Jones filled in for Guthrie, who returned to the NBC morning show on Wednesday, October 8.
While the Wordle series has yet to receive a series order, it’s possible the game show could affect Guthrie’s Today schedule. If the show continues to be filmed across the pond, Guthrie will likely take more absences from Today, which is famously filmed at New York City’s 30 Rockefeller Center.
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If the show were to get the greenlight, perhaps filming would move closer to the NYC area. Filming for Fallon’s other NBC game show, Password, reportedly takes place in Newark, New Jersey.
Guthrie would not be the only Today personality to take time off to film other projects, as hosts such as Jones or Dylan Dreyer frequently step in for Carson Daly while he’s away in California filming The Voice.
Guthrie’s role as the Wordle game show host would be a match made in heaven, as she has shared her love for the NY Times game multiple times on Today. Back in March, Guthrie took a trip to the newspaper’s NYC headquarters to get a behind-the-scenes look at the people behind the outlet’s variety of online games.
She followed up her visit by heading to Times Square to play that day’s Wordle puzzle on a giant billboard, which she solved in three guesses.
“That needs to be a game show in primetime, live in Times Square, on the big board,” Daly said in Today‘s Studio 1A after watching the prerecorded segment. Guthrie replied, “That is a great idea.”
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