Savannah Guthrie Debuts ‘New Voice’ as She Prepares to Return to ‘Today’ After Vocal Cord Surgery

Today’s Savannah Guthrie has been out of commission ever since she underwent vocal cord surgery earlier this month, but she recently popped in via video call to say hi and to show off her “new” voice.

“She’s still on vocal rest, but she’s looking gorgeous,” Jenna Bush Hager said as they pulled Guthrie, 54, up on a video screen.

Hager, 44, along with Al Roker, Craig Melvin, Sheinelle Jones and Carson Daly, were waiting for Guthrie to pull out the whiteboard she had previously been using to communicate when she surprised them by actually speaking.

“You know what? I think it’d be easier for me to just talk,” Guthrie said with a smile. “So, I’m still on vocal rest but I’m allowed to talk for about five to ten minutes every hour. This is my new voice! Or my old voice… but my new voice.”

Roker, 71, said that it “sounded the same,” while the rest of her cohosts gushed about how great she sounded.

“I think the good news is that it worked. Sheinelle knows, she went through it,” Guthrie continued. “It’s slow recovery. You’re allowed to talk, but if you talk too much, you feel it. So you really have to take it easy.”

Hager then inquired when the group could expect to have Guthrie back on set and the date was sooner than they expected.

“I’m going to come back to the show next Monday. But Friday I’m going to come and we are going to do a little story about what this whole thing has been like, the surgery,” she explained. “It’s very common. People who talk a lot, like teachers. A lot of people have told me they’ve had this same thing.”

Guthrie revealed in December that she had been diagnosed with both vocal nodules and a polyp, and the condition required surgery.

“Some of you have noticed that my voice has been very scratchy and started to crack a little bit like Peter Brady, who was going through a change,” Guthrie told viewers during the episode. “Well, I have found out what it is. I have vocal nodules, and now I also have a polyp.”

The longtime Today host stepped away from the show shortly after her announcement and has been gone for close to a month.