For the past almost two weeks, the Today Show has kicked off by sharing updates into their anchor Savannah Guthrie's mom Nancy Guthrie's kidnapping.
The veteran journalist was absent from the show's Monday, February 2 installment, and has been ever since, amid the ongoing search for her 84-year-old mother, who was last seen Saturday, January 31, and kidnapped overnight.
Now, with morning viewers rushing to stay up to date with all the latest on the heartbreaking case, viewership of the long-running program has boosted.
© Getty ImagesAccording to data from Nielsen reported by Variety, overall viewership at TODAY during the five days ended February 6 surged 23%, or by 624,000, over the year-earlier period.
In concurrence with its regular programming and its segments dedicated to the investigation, NBC is also seeing an uptick in viewership thanks to the 2026 Winter Olympics broadcasting live from Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy, which it airs for hours every day.
Moreover, TODAY has won an average audience of nearly 3.32 million viewers, compared to nearly 2.91 million for ABC's Good Morning America and about 1.84 million for CBS' CBS Mornings, per the outlet.
According to Nielsen, among the three broadcast TV morning shows, TODAY takes up 41% of the morning-show viewing, while GMA got 36% and CBS Mornings took 23%.
Variety further reports that season to date, TODAY leads both its main competitors in overall viewers and the audience between 25 and 54, a highly-coveted demographic by advertisers.
The first two hours of TODAY, which have been co-anchored by Savannah and Craig Melvin since last year, are currently being anchored by the latter and Hoda Kotb who he replaced upon her departure.
© NBCSavannah was also meant to be hosting the Winter Olympics, but was replaced by former tennis player and NBC Sports commentator Mary Carillo, who joined Mike Tirico.
Currently in its 12th day of the investigation, though some developments have been made in the search for Nancy, most recently photo and video of the alleged kidnapper approaching her home, a suspect has yet to be identified, and Nancy remains missing.
On Tuesday night, a food delivery driver was detained, questioned, and later let go, and multiple outlets reported that there had been activity in the Bitcoin account associated with the alleged kidnapper and the ransom note. For the latest on the investigation, head here for all of the frequently updated key details and everything you need to know.
