What Savannah Guthrie's Life Was Like Before Daytime TV Stardom

Savannah Guthrie is one of daytime TV's best known stars thanks to hosting one of NBC's most popular programs. Now, Guthrie lives a lavish lifestyle, but the "Today" show host had quite the journey before achieving fame as a journalist. Guthrie opened up about the early days of her career in a 2021 interview with Original Jurisdiction, a Substack publication.

"I was around 26 or 27, and I had been doing local news for a few years by that point," she said. "I wasn't sure if I wanted to keep doing it and try to move up to a bigger market." You might not know this about Guthrie, but this turning point in her life led her to attend law school for career security.

Given that she called herself a "huge legal nerd," it made sense that she chose to take the LSAT and apply for law school. Guthrie realized, however, that she missed application deadlines in 1999 before receiving an extension offer from Georgetown Law. After spending three weeks on her application, she was accepted into the D.C. -based school. Guthrie earned her degree with the highest honors in 2002, likely contributing to her success. The "Today" host called it "a big confidence builder."

Savannah Guthrie worked at a top law firm in D.C. for almost a year after graduating from law school and passing the bar exam in Arizona. However, she wasn't satisfied with the job long-term and almost became a judicial clerk before returning to journalism.

Guthrie considers her short time in the legal field an advantage in her journalism career. , The journalist told Original Jurisdiction that she wasn't dismissed when she worked as a legal correspondent for CourtTV and later NBC. "When I had conversations with senior administration officials and other sources," she said, "the law degree gave me a certain stamp of credibility." Guthrie also credits her legal background for her approach to researching and interviewing. "As a lawyer, I learned about the importance of hearing out all the arguments. What are they saying over here, what are they saying over there, what's the counterargument to that point?"

It's no wonder that her legal background played a role in her broadcast career. Several of Guthrie's most talked about moments on air include her 2015 interview with Hilary Clinton and 2020 interview with Donald Trump.  In those interviews, she asked questions the respondent didn't want to answer. The "Today" show host, however, doesn't think her popular interviews are much different from others. "I feel I give every interview subject the same treatment," she said. "I ask straightforward questions, and if you don't answer them, I ask follow-ups."