Tragic Details About The Cast Of The Today Show

NBC's "Today" is one of the cornerstones of U.S. television. When the program premiered way back in 1952, it was the country's first ever national live morning show and remains one of the longest-running series in American history. It's also helped to elevate the careers of everyone from Dave Garroway and Hugh Downs to Barbara Walters and Katie Couric, not to mention Hoda Kotb, whose messy departure from "Today" after seven years as co-anchor has once again seen a reshuffling of the core line-up.

As of January 2025, the "Today" desk is populated by Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin as weekday co-anchors, with Al Roker, Carson Daly, Sheinelle Jones, Dylan Dreyer, and Jenna Bush Hager providing various support. Weekend duties, meanwhile, are the responsibility of Peter Alexander, Laura Jarrett, and Willie Geist. But while all 10 regulars are always putting on their best happy faces on screen, many have had to deal with sadness, darkness, and tragedy behind it.

In 2019, Savannah Guthrie suffered a bizarre injury when her 2-year-old son, Charley, threw his favorite toy train at her eye, accidentally tearing her retina in the process. The "Today" host was left temporarily blind by the incident, which forced her to take time off from her morning show duties.

"It was so blurry from — not to get too gross — but there was so much blood inside the eye that it completely blocked my vision," Guthrie explained during a live phone call on "Today" to her NBC colleagues. "He's two, so he doesn't even know what he did," she added about the young culprit. "I wouldn't want to make him feel bad about it ... He hears me talking about it and he has no idea."

Although Guthrie hoped that her recovery would be quick, it proved to be anything but. She was forced to undergo three separate surgeries over the following 18 months, a period in which she also developed cataracts. However, the star was still able to joke about the accident, telling People that Charley still has the offending truck, which her daughter had labeled "the weapon." "Honestly, I should have thrown it in the trash, but he likes that train," Guthrie reasoned.

"It has been an interesting morning for us," "Today" regular Sheinelle Jones told viewers (via Deadline) in February 2023 after ever-transforming co-host Savannah Guthrie left early. The anchor then went on to explain how her colleague took a COVID-19 test that came back positive before wishing her a quick recovery. No doubt, the afflicted was experiencing a case of déjà vu, for this was the third time that Guthrie — who's been the main show's co-anchor since 2012 — had been struck down by the virus in just a little over a year. Guthrie was first forced to step away from her TV duties in January 2022 shortly after fellow "Today" star Hoda Kotb had tested positive, too. Then four months later, she once again had to take time out for the same reason.

But while Jones offered her well wishes, Megyn Kelly decided to take a different approach, criticizing how seriously the "Today" crew was taking the diagnosis. "I mean, at this point, seriously? Is anyone still even testing for COVID?" she ranted to listeners of her eponymous SiriusXM podcast following Guthrie's sudden departure. "All of it is such a perfect indication of how the left, and especially the left in New York, continues to live."

In 2023, Craig Melvin hosted the Bottom's Up Invitational — a celebrity golfing event designed to raise both funds and awareness for colon cancer — for the second year running. It's a cause close to his heart, having lost a brother to the disease. Following a lengthy battle, Lawrence Meadows died from stage 4 cancer in 2020, a tragedy which the "Today" host believes could have been avoided. "The reality is, had Lawrence gotten checked earlier, he might still be with us." he expressed to People. "But we didn't know about our family history and there were signs that he ignored."

Melvin — who replaced Hoda Kotb as the main show's co-anchor in 2025 — went on to reveal that Meadows had experienced everything from sudden weight loss to abdominal pains before finally seeing a doctor. "I've always thought that when terrible things happen to you — and terrible things happen to all of us at some point — I think that we're all obligated to take the terrible things and turn them into something positive," he added about his involvement with the charity event, which counted the likes of singer Darius Rucker, "The Voice" contestant Ray Boudreaux, and The Commodores' Thomas McClary as participants.

In his 2020 book, "You Look So Much Better in Person: True Stories of Absurdity and Success," and during its promotional tour, Al Roker discussed how he encountered racist attitudes throughout his career. And one such instance remarkably happened live on air.

In an interview with "Today" colleague Craig Melvin, Roker explained the incident occurred in the '70s while he was working alongside Doug Adair as a weatherman on NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. The star recalled one particular evening that an African-American homeless man "bopped" his colleague on the head with a newspaper during a downtown walk: "The next day we get on the air and his wife, Mona, is about to introduce me, and he goes, 'Mona, before you introduce Al, Al I don't know if you know this, but last night, one of your people attacked me.”'

Roker admitted that he was left bewildered by the comment but tried to brush it off in front of the cameras. "I just looked at him and I go, 'Doug why would a weatherman attack you?' And then just went into the weather," he explained. But Adair's remark didn't go unnoticed by the viewers at home who in the pre-social media age lit up the station's switchboard in disgust.

Al Roker got personal during a 2020 episode of "Today" when he revealed that he received a diagnosis of prostate cancer. "Good news is we caught it early," the star remarked. "Not-great news is that it's a little aggressive, so I'm going to be taking some time off to take care of this." Thankfully, Roker's treatment proved to be a success, and he was back to work within a few months. The anchor couldn't have been more grateful for all of the well wishes he'd been sent. "The outpouring of love and support that I have received from all of you, including the prayers, have been truly heartening," he said after undergoing prostate cancer surgery a little under a week after announcing his diagnosis to the world.

But Roker also realized that he wasn't completely out of the woods, adding that he was going to continue testing for the rest of his life. While guesting on "The Kelly Clarkson Show," he also expressed hopes to inspire others to do the same. Referring to the fact that African-American men are 50% more likely to get prostate cancer, he said, "I just want people to get their prostate checked — and especially if you're a man of color, get your prostate checked. It's not that big a deal, and it can make a big deal."

Sadly, Roker has dealt with a history of health problems over the years, including surgeries on his back, hip, shoulder, and thumb, as well as two knee replacement surgeries. In November 2022, just two years after being diagnosed with prostate cancer, the weatherman faced another life-threatening condition when doctors discovered blood clots in his legs and lungs. After what he called "medical whack-a-mole" on his Instagram — and his second knee replacement surgery that had to be postponed by the blood clot ordeal — proving that you can't keep the anchor down for long, he returned to work in May 2023.

Carson Daly suffered every child's worst nightmare when he lost his father at the age of just 5 years old. James "J.D." Daly, who worked as a car salesman, died from bladder cancer in the early 1980s. Even decades on, the "Today" host still thinks about him every single day.

Carson, who's risen from social media correspondent to co-host, makes sure to honor his biological dad whenever he can. In 2023, he commemorated Father's Day by firing up the 1977 Corvette once owned by his father, which resides in his driveway. "I don't drive it that much anymore," he told Today. "But on Father's Day, I'll take it to go get coffee and I'll think of my dad. I drove in that exact car when I was a little boy."

Three years earlier, he touchingly recreated a photo of his father with the help of his sister Quinn. "That photo has been speaking to me over the past three months — I've got so many questions about it," he explained during a "Today" segment about the snap, in which his father can be seen pouring a gin and tonic. 

2017 was something of an annus horribilis for Carson Daly. First, the star's mom, Pattie Daly Caruso, suffered a fatal heart attack. Then, just five weeks later, he lost his stepfather, Richard Caruso, to bone cancer.

"It's been a rough month for my family," Carson told his "Today" co-hosts in the wake of the tragedies. The former "Total Request Live" host paid tribute to Richard, who, since marrying his mom when he was 8 years old, he'd called "dad." Describing him as a "role model" and "mentor" who taught him several valuable life lessons, Carson added, "My mom had all the sayings and isms — you know, 'You can shoot for the stars!' And my dad woke up early, went to work, had a great deep personal faith that I later in life would gravitate towards."

"It's hard to grasp that considering they were both healthy in June," an emotional Carson went on to add. "The enormity of this, the totality of a loss so soon, is still a struggle." The host then agreed with the rest of the panel that he'd been blessed to have such loving parents: "I realize the more pain that I feel losing my parents is testament to how much of an impact they made in my life."

Those of us who grew up watching Carson Daly hold court with the biggest pop stars of the era on MTV's "Total Request Live" would assume that he had confidence in spades. But, in fact, the former squeeze of "American Pie" star Tara Reid has endured panic attacks and generalized anxiety disorder for his entire career.

"You may think my life's perfect," the self-described "worrywart" explained to USA Today. "I've got kids. I always look happy on TV or when you watch me on 'The Voice.' But that's just not how it works. It's not like that." Daly went on to admit that he often spend his time on the singing show gripping onto his thigh through his right pocket as a coping mechanism.

In a 2023 chat on "Today," which coincided with World Mental Health Day, Daly recalled one particular moment on "The Voice" that he experienced a severe panic attack. "It felt like really intense fight or flight, like you have to run off the stage," he explained. "You feel like your equilibrium's off, your heart's racing. Basically like there's an imminent threat in your life, but there isn't. And so you just have to hold on because it usually passes in about 30 seconds." The former VJ has been attempting to help destigmatize such conditions via his work on the "Today" segment, Mind Matters.

Dylan Dreyer spent more than a decade covering the weather, and its most extreme forms, on television without ever succumbing to the elements. But that all changed in 2013, a year into her stint at NBC News, when the meteorologist was involved in a terrifying car crash.

Dreyer — who covers the third hour of "Today" as a co-anchor — was traveling to Hartford, Connecticut from the Big Apple when her vehicle spun out of control. "It didn't help that we took the Merritt Parkway," the mother of three explained to Zap2it (via Hello!). "It's so winding, and once we got to Connecticut, the roads deteriorated instantly and I ended up hitting my head."

Luckily, Dreyer, who later spent time in hospital after pregnancy complications with her third child, only suffered a mild concussion from the accident, but she was still ordered by her husband, Brian Fichera, to take time off work to recover. "That's the best way to get through any head injury, though it was low-impact," she added.

Like fellow "Today" host Carson Daly, Laura Jarrett lost her father at a young age. Indeed, the journalist — who co-anchors the Saturday broadcast alongside Peter Alexander — was only 10 years old when her dad went into a fatal cardiac arrest. William Robert Jarrett, who'd only just been appointed Jackson Park Hospital's director of obstetrics and gynecology, fell ill shortly after giving a medical lecture and died en route to the hospital at the age of just 40. He was married to a fellow doctor, Sherry Luck Jarrett, at the time. He was previously married for four years to future Obama administration official, and Laura's mother, Valerie Jarrett.

William — whose father, Vernon Jarrett, was a Chicago Sun-Times columnist — had earlier been diagnosed with the rare rheumatological condition known as Behcet's syndrome. He dedicated his life to the medical profession, studying at Roosevelt University, Fisk University, and Chicago's Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine at the University of Illinois before becoming chief resident at the Pontiac General Hospital. Discussing loss on "Today" with fellow host, Hoda Kotb, Laura opened up about the early loss of her father, saying, "Family was everything to us."

Willie Geist was perhaps always destined to anchor the Sunday edition of "Today" more than any other. After all, his father, Bill Geist, served as correspondent on various CBS news programs, including "CBS Sunday Morning," for a good 30 years. Sadly, the latter had to spend much of his latter-day career battling Parkinson's disease.

Bill was diagnosed with the condition in 1992, but decided against telling his children, Libby and Willie, the news for over 10 years. "My parents shielded us from worrying about Dad," Willie told Brain and Life in 2020. "He was of the mind that you shouldn't concern people with your problems."

But over time, the siblings began to recognize that something was amiss. Recalling one particularly concerning moment in which his father struggled to open the sunroof of their car, Willie said, "I can't say why that image is seared into my memory. He was just slow and not moving the energetic way I remembered." Bill also kept his condition a secret from the public until revealing all on air in 2012. "We were watching, applauding, and crying a bit," his son remarked about the emotional moment.

In 2021, Sheinelle Jones revealed the devastating news that, more than 12 years previously, she had suffered a miscarriage. The third hour co-host of "Today," who by this point had become a mother of three, admitted in a personal essay that she felt at the time as though her sadness would never end.

Jones explained how the tragedy occurred while she was at a journalism conference, but she'd been experiencing complications for some time beforehand. "I remember finding out that something was wrong [with the baby]; the doctor told me the baby's heartbeat was weak," she recalled. "In response, I did what a lot of women do: I just kept moving forward."

Jones did take a couple of days off from work after losing the baby, but was soon back on the news broadcasting treadmill. "It was so painful, but I think you take the grief and tuck it away somewhere as you move forward in life." Having since given birth to son Kayin and twins Clara and Uche without any problems, the anchor hopes that her story can reassure women who have gone through a similar tragedy.

Sadly, Sheinelle Jones isn't the only "Today" regular to have endured the heartache of a miscarriage. In 2023, Jenna Bush Hager — who serves as the show's fourth hour co-host — revealed to Hoda Kotb that she and managing director husband Henry had, too, gone through such trauma.

Hager, the daughter of former U.S. president George W. Bush, explained on "Today" that before giving birth to her oldest child, Mila, she had an ectopic pregnancy. "At the time, because I had to have surgery, it felt like, it felt really hard," she recounted. "And also hard 'cause we were young and I don't know that Henry and I necessary knew even the language of life yet; how lucky we were."

Hager — who's also mom to daughter Poppy and son Hal — grew to believe that the tragedy may have happened for a reason. "When I look at those three kid's faces, had that baby lived, the other three wouldn't necessarily be mine," she related. "And I always think about those little twists that felt like the hardest heartbreaks."