'Full Of Joy': Savannah Guthrie Announces Fun Career Victory Amid Her Very Difficult Year

The world watched in horror as "Today" host Savannah Guthrie's already difficult year took a terrifying turn when her mom was reported missing in February. In April, she returned to "Today" amid her ongoing family tragedy after a months-long hiatus. While life will likely never go back to normal for Guthrie, returning to work surely provided a bit of much needed stability for her. Now, a new career endeavor might be bringing her something else she's in dire need of: a bit of joy.

On May 11, the titular host of "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" appeared alongside Guthrie on "Today" as the pair of hosts let fans in on an interesting new development they're embarking on together. "This is very exciting, I have a big announcement to make," Fallon explained (per "Today"). He added, "We've been developing Wordle as a game show for the past two-and-a-half years with The New York Times, and it's official — we are making Wordle Game Show with our host, Savannah Guthrie."

The daily word puzzle that inspired the forthcoming series came out in 2021, and by the following year, its name was the most-searched word in the world and in the United States on Google. It's safe to assume that the game show version of this beloved puzzle game will have quite a few fans. Plus, this will surely provide some welcome excitement for Guthrie.

"We've been holding this secret between us for a long time now," Savannah Guthrie explained on "Today" about her upcoming game show. Jimmy Fallon knows a thing or two about hosting, and he's got nothing but praise for Savannah in her latest hosting endeavor. "I'm so happy it's you. We were looking, we're like, 'Who's the perfect host of this?' We need to have someone that looks like they play Wordle, someone that knows how to run a show and host it, and we did the pilot, and you are amazing, by the way," Fallon told Savannah.

Savannah also gave a bit of background about how the series came to be, noting that they had planned to begin shooting in March, but when her mother, Nancy Guthrie, went missing, everything changed. "... When everything happened with me and my family, they just stopped everything and said, 'We'll wait for you.' And Hollywood is a really tough business, and I didn't expect that, and I just want to say thank you ..." she said.

Savannah also noted that, "It kind of feels strange to do everything right now, but this is something that's full of joy." Today, Nancy remains missing. The day before her big announcement, Savannah shared an Instagram post about her mom for Mother's Day. In it, she wrote, "We will never stop looking for you. We will never be at peace until we find you."