Savannah Guthrie tapes interview with Hoda Kotb, plans Today show return next month

As she prepares to return to the NBC Today show, Australian-born US TV presenter Savannah Guthrie has taped an interview with her long-time friend and colleague, Hoda Kotb.

The sit-down will air Thursday and Friday on Today and marks Guthrie's first interview since her mother, Nancy Guthrie, went missing 53 days ago - the victim of an apparent kidnapping.

NBC aired a preview of the interview on Wednesday morning (Wednesday night AEDT).

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"Someone needs to do the right thing. We are in agony. We are in agony. It is unbearable," Guthrie said through tears in the clip.

Guthrie said she wakes up "in the middle of the night, every night, and in the darkness, I imagine her terror. And it is unthinkable, but those thoughts demand to be thought".

"I will not hide my face," Guthrie added, perhaps alluding to her plan to come back on air.

The network has not announced a return date for Guthrie yet. But a person close to the show said they anticipate Guthrie coming back to Studio 1A sometime in April.

The New York Post previously reported that Guthrie could return "in just a few weeks".

Guthrie, 54, is the centerpiece of the Today show, one of the most important franchises at NBCUniversal. So it was inevitable that speculation would ensue about her future on the show, even as she was fully consumed by the search for her mum.

Guthrie flew to Tucson, Arizona, as soon as Nancy was reported missing on February 1, and she remained in the Tucson area for weeks.

Once she flew home to New York City, she visited the Today show cast and crew on March 5 and thanked them for shining a constant spotlight on her mum's disappearance.

She confirmed that day that she would return to work at some point, saying, "I don't know how to come back, but I don't know how not to. You're my family. And, I would like to try."

For Guthrie, as hard as it might be to imagine resuming work, it might also be a comforting routine after the most unsettling chapter of her life.

Nancy's disappearance dominated national news headlines for several weeks in February, turning Guthrie — usually a steady news anchor at NBC — into a subject of the news.

Guthrie released several heartbreaking pleas for public help via Instagram and, as the volume of tips slowed, eventually announced a $US1 million ($1.4 million) reward.

Officials say the case is still active, with a 20-to-24-person task force dedicated to the investigation.

"We're not giving up," Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos told KOLD, the CBS affiliate in Tucson, earlier this week.

The Guthrie family maintains close communication with law enforcement, a friend of Savannah's told CNN.

Last week, the family released a new statement to KVOA, the NBC affiliate in Tucson, with an eye toward jogging people's memories and keeping Nancy's uncertain status in the news.

"We continue to believe it is Tucsonans, and the greater southern Arizona community, that hold the key to finding resolution in this case," the statement said.

After the preview of the interview aired on Wednesday, co-host Carson Daly said it's difficult to see Guthrie "in this tortured limbo state", given that there has been no closure since Nancy remains missing.

Kotb said she sensed both desperation and a sense of steeliness from Guthrie.

"I was sort of marvelling that she was able to sit there with an outfit on, have a conversation, and also have just direct thoughts about what she sees going forward," Kotb said.

In the interview that will air later this week, Kotb added, Guthrie shared that "no one's stealing her joy, so you'll see both sides of that".

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