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Savannah Guthrie is returning to “Today.”

Viewers of NBC’s morning program learned Friday that Guthrie will be back to her hosting duties at the network’s Rockefeller Plaza studio in New York on April 6.

Guthrie has been absent from “Today” since Feb. 2, the day after learning her mother Nancy was abducted from her Tucson home. She appeared on the program this week in a taped interview with Hoda Kotb, her first since her mother went missing..

Guthrie’s re-entry on “Today” is certain to generate significant viewer interest. Her 84-year-old mother’s case, still being investigated by law enforcement, generated an outpouring of public affection for the co-host.

Many media industry insiders expressed serious doubts over whether Guthrie would return to television before law enforcement determined what happened to Nancy Guthrie. But people close to Guthrie believe her grit and deep religious faith will provide her with the strength to move forward.

Guthrie’s daily presence on “Today” will also help keep her mother’s case in the public eye. NBC is also airing a special “Dateline” episode on the abduction on Friday.

Guthrie has spent most of the last seven weeks in Tucson with her family. She canceled plans to be a part of NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in Milan and before this week only appeared on TV and social media in taped messages asking for the help in finding her mother.

Nancy Guthrie was last seen Jan. 31, when she spent the evening with family members. Law enforcement officials believe she was removed from her Catalina Foothills home later that night against her will as her phone, wallet, car and medication were left behind.

Surveillance videos of a masked man who was outside Guthrie’s front door on the night she disappeared were released by the FBI.

NBCUniversal is cutting “Access Hollywood” and several other of its daytime talk shows, effectively ending its first-run syndication business as daytime television atrophies.

The company confirmed that “Access Hollywood,” and its counterpart “Access Live,” will be coming to an end in September. The shows, produced in Los Angeles, are currently hosted by Mario Lopez, Kit Hoover, Scott Evans and Zuri Hall.

Talk shows “Karamo” and “The Steve Wilkos Show,” produced out of NBC’s facility in Stamford, Conn., are also shutting down. The programs have already completed their production for the season and will run through the summer.

NBC previously announced that “The Kelly Clarkson Show” is also ending later this year after seven seasons.

“The Steve Wilkos Show” ran for 19 seasons. The host is a former bouncer for “The Jerry Springer Show.”

Francis Berwick, chairman of Bravo and Peacock unscripted, said in a statement that the company will continue to distribute library episodes of its talk programs and network shows such as “Law & Order.” But NBCU’s days of launching series for daytime and the hour before prime time are over.

“NBCUniversal is making changes to our first-run syndication division to better align with the programming preferences of local stations,” Berwick said. “The company will remain active in the distribution of our existing program library and other off-network titles, while winding down production of our first-run shows.”

“Access Hollywood” was first launched by NBC in 1996 as a competitor to CBS Media Ventures’ “Entertainment Tonight.”

First-run syndication allows producers to sell TV shows to stations on a market-by-market basis, instead of distributing them through a single network. This model was a major success for talk show staples such as Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres.

But streaming has pulled viewers away from traditional television, as viewers can watch their favorite shows and movies anytime on demand. The audience levels needed to generate enough ad revenue to support first-run programming in daytime no longer exists.

Many TV stations are filling their hours with more local news as daytime talk goes away.