'Today' Co-host Savannah Guthrie 'Panicking' as Show Ratings Surge During Her Medical Leave — And Now She's 'Pushing Doctors to Get Her Back to Work'

Savannah Guthrie is rushing back to work from vocal cord surgery after ratings surged while the Today co-host has been off the air and unable to speak, RadarOnline.com can reveal.

The longtime NBC personality has been away for more than a month recovering, with Sheinelle Jones taking over as Craig Melvin's co-host on the first two key hours of the morning show.

Now, Guthrie is in a mad "panic" over how Today has drawn more viewers since she's been gone.

"Savannah is in full panic mode. While she's been away with the vocal issue, the ratings went UP," an insider dished about the stressed-out host.

The former attorney is now "pushing her doctors to get her back to work as soon as possible. And so that the audience doesn't forget her, she's insisting the show tape a piece on her at home recovering."

To remind viewers she still exists, Guthrie made a remote appearance from her home during Today's Morning Boost segment on Tuesday, January 20.

She told her coworkers and viewers, "I am still on vocal rest, but I’m allowed to talk for five to 10 minutes every hour," as she debuted her new voice.

Weatherman Al Roker joked that Guthrie's voice, after having nodes removed from her vocal cords, “sounds the same." However, Melvin, 46, assured his cohost, "You sound markedly better!"

"I think the good news is it worked," Guthrie gushed about her successful operation. "It’s kind of a slow recovery. You're allowed to talk, and if you talk too much — which is a real risk for me — you start to feel it, so you just have to take it easy.”

Jenna Bush Hager raved that Guthrie "sounded great" and asked when she was coming back, telling her colleague, "We miss you."

The Australian native said she planned to return to full-time co-hosting duties on January 26 but would make another appearance at the end of this week.

"I'm going to come back to the show, I think, next Monday, but Friday I'm going to come, and we're gonna do a little story about just what this whole thing has been like and the surgery," she told her pals.

Shortly after Guthrie began her medical leave, Today gained 12 percent more viewers in the final week of December 2025 and the first week of 2026, compared to the ratings at that time the previous year.

Today even beat rival Good Morning America on ABC, with 2.86 million viewers tuning in to the team of Melvin and Jones, 47, while Saturday Today co-anchor Laura Jarrett filled in for Guthrie closer to Christmas week 2025.

"Savannah is trying to laugh it off publicly, but privately, she's completely shaken," a show source dished. "Seeing the ratings tick up without her hit a nerve she didn't know she had."

"She keeps asking, 'Is this a fluke?'... But no one's giving her a straight answer, which is making it worse," the insider blabbed.

Guthrie got the top spot on Today after Ann Curry was let go in 2012. She managed to weather the Matt Lauer firing and his subsequent s-- scandal in 2017, and soldiered on with new co-host Hoda Kotb until her retirement in January 2025.

'Savannah always believed she was the glue holding the show together. The numbers going up while she's gone have seriously rattled that belief. She feels blindsided," the source revealed.