After Hoda Kotb’s exit, NBC eager to keep Savannah Guthrie ‘for life’

“Today” show star Savannah Guthrie has more than a year left on her current $7 million-a-year deal — and will be staying put in NBC’s Studio 1A for the foreseeable future, industry sources tell Page Six.

Rumors have been rife that Guthrie’s co-anchor Hoda Kotb beat Guthrie, 52, to the punch by announcing her own surprise departure last week.

“There was chatter that Savannah was planning her own exit strategy for next year after the election, but Hoda has made that all but impossible,” one TV source told Page Six.

Hoda Kotb was thinking about leaving ‘Today’ for ‘a really long time,’ but colleagues were still ‘shocked’: sources

NBC staff suspected Guthrie — who will help helm the network’s election-night coverage next month — was paving the way for a future outside “Today” with the publication of her critically acclaimed New York Times best seller, “Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding,” back in February, we’re told.

“Savannah has talked a lot about not wanting to overstay her welcome on ‘Today.’ I honestly took the book as a signal of what her post-‘Today’ life was going to be,” said one highly-placed NBC staffer.

“My hunch is that Hoda completely scooped her.”

A TV insider added: “Of course, nobody at NBC wants Savannah to leave. I think if the bosses had their way she would be here for life. She is the beating heart of ‘Today’ — there is so much support for her.

Hoda Kotb announces exit from ‘Today’ show after 26 years

“There are so few people who can go from dressing as a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader for Halloween to interviewing the president to covering a major breaking news story.”

We’re told that Kotb, 60, gave a speech to ‘Today’ staff after she emotionally broke the news of her departure on air, and that Guthrie followed her up to “rally the troops.”

“We had a staff meeting right after the announcement. Hoda spoke, and the bosses, and then Savannah spoke, and it was beautiful,” a “Today” source said. “[Guthrie] gave the ‘Today’ team the care they really needed in that moment.”

“Today” beat ABC rival “Good Morning America” in total viewers for the past two months and has won in the key news demo, adults 25-54, for the past eight years.

Puck News reported Friday that Kotb was making more than $20 million a year and decided to leave after NBC bosses proposed a pay cut. The outlet also reported that Guthrie earns more than $20 million a year.

However, a senior NBC source estimated that Guthrie and Kotb are currently making around $7-8 million annually. Before leaving in 2017, disgraced “Today” anchor Matt Lauer was on an estimated $25 million-a-year deal.

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“Matt Lauer made that kind of money, but when he left, so did that kind of salary,” said the senior NBC source.

As for whom will take over from Kotb when she leaves the show next year, industry sources say the frontrunners appear to be “Today” new anchor Craig Melvin, “Today” news anchor and NBC News Senior Legal Correspondent Laura Jarrett, who already co-hosts the Saturday “Today” show.

Jarrett is the daughter of Valerie Jarrett, who served as President Barack Obama senior advisor.

“The ‘Today’ audience is right of center politically, so there would be the question of whether viewers would welcome Valerie Jarrett’s daughter in Hoda’s seat,” the TV insider said.

But multiple sources at NBC said there is no clear frontrunner yet.

“Various people know they need to step up,” said one NBC source. “When a world crisis is unfolding you have to be able to look up and trust the people you’re seeing on air.”

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