'TODAY' Hosts Hoda & Savannah Sit Close For The First Time In 15 Months

As the CDC relaxes its social distancing guidelines for the fully vaccinated, TODAY show hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie are once again sitting side by side

Viewers who tuned into the TODAY show Friday morning were greeted with a sight they haven’t seen in more than a year — hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie sitting right next to each other, social distancing no more.

“How long have we been waiting for this moment?” Guthrie asked at the top of the show — grabbing Kotb’s hand for emphasis. The anchors spent about 15 months of the pandemic sitting on separate ends of the desk to stay the recommended six feet apart. But the CDC has now relaxed social distancing guidelines for the fully vaccinated, which means the ladies of TODAY are once again free to get up close and personal—which they absolutely did.

“Your breath smells minty fresh!” Kotb enthusiastically complimented her c0-host. Personally, I’ll take a hard pass on ever being in breath-smelling distance of my co-workers, pandemic or no pandemic, but Kotb seemed genuinely pumped about it. I guess we all need something to celebrate after the past 15 months.

CDC guidance released Thursday gave fully-vaccinated Americans the green light to ditch their masks and drop social distancing in most places, whether indoors or outdoors. “And that’s how we got together today!” Guthrie explained.

Guthrie in particular seemed to take the “no more social distancing” decree as a personal challenge, hopping into Kotb’s lap at one point and slinging her arm across Al Roker’s shoulder in another. Roker laughs it off, but tell me his smile in the clip below doesn’t look just a teeny little bit like he’s in a hostage video.

Not joining in the fun just yet was co-host Craig Melvin, who won’t be fully vaccinated until Monday. He stayed six feet away from Guthrie and Kotb, so there’s no word on what his breath smelled like today—but I’m thinking we can expect a full report next week.

For some viewers, seeing Guthrie and Kotb sitting next to each other was a welcome return to normalcy, and a positive sign that maybe the end of the pandemic really is in sight. Some thought it felt a bit jarring after so much time.

As Covid-19 guidelines continue to evolve, we can likely expect to see a lot more changes like the one TODAY made. It’s going to take some getting used to for many Americans, but hopefully, we can eventually have as much fun with it as Kotb and Guthrie did—just maybe without the breath-smelling.