Camera operators, co-anchors and onlookers surround Savannah Guthrie whenever she appears on a broadcast of NBC’s “Today.” For a new streaming offering, however, sometimes she must fly solo.
Guthrie is hunkered down in her dressing room two flights of stairs above Studio 1A, the longtime home of the venerable morning show, fidgeting with a ring light that she can’t get to stay in a fixed position due to a faulty clamp. Rainy weather is keeping her from doing what was supposed to be a quick outdoor interview with the country band Lady A for the latest edition of “Six-Minute Marathon,” a recurring feature where she throws questions rapid-fire at any number of celebrity guests: “If you were arrested, with no explanation, what would your family think you had done?” “If you were stuck on a desert island and could only have one food, what would it be?” “What movie or TV reboot would you like to see happen?”
In the big studio, Guthrie would enjoy quick access to helpful staff. Here, in a private space decorated with pictures of her family and a pink neon heart-shaped light, she is on her own. “It’s like I do what I need to do,” says Guthrie after the streaming segment comes to an end, noting that “I don’t have to prep for it. All I have to do is be present and be listening.”
Guthrie’s “Marathon” short likely won’t snare the hundreds of thousands of viewers who regularly watch “Today,” but segments like it are starting to carry as much significance to NBC and its corporate parent, Comcast, as the two hours of morning TV…