Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin were urged to rest after an overnight election shift caught up with them on TODAY.
The NBC presenters showed their tiredness during the handover towards TODAY’s Third Hour.
The pair had made a quick turnaround from election-night coverage to their usual early-morning television duties.
But Craig’s working day wasn’t over: he was also due to co-anchor the show’s Third Hour.
Craig Melvin stumbles during the TODAY handover
For Craig, the difficulty became apparent as he tried to explain what viewers could expect next.
He stumbled over his words before turning to Carson Daly and acknowledging that his delivery was proving a struggle.
“I can barely get that sentence out,” he said.
Al Roker then began a chorus of “good nights” as Savannah rested her head on Craig’s shoulder.
Fake snoring sounds then played over the broadcast.
Earlier, Craig had told Savannah: “You need to go get some rest.” She replied saying, “So do you.”
Craig tried to spur himself on as he looked ahead to the remaining hour of the broadcast. “One more hour, one more hour,” he said.
Carson, meanwhile, praised both presenters for their work through the previous night.
The exchange followed Sheinelle Jones’ live segment with the Radio City Rockettes. The programme was about to move into its next hour.
Savannah Guthrie’s overnight NBC election coverage
Savannah had led NBC’s main election-night broadcast alongside Tom Llamas, Kristen Welker and Hallie Jackson. The coverage brought in 6.5 million viewers.
Kristen and Hallie also appeared as guests on TODAY the following morning.
Meanwhile, Steve Kornacki’s live election stream offered another way for audiences to follow the vote count. His Kornacki Cam averaged 29 million views across all platforms. The stream ran primarily on YouTube throughout the evening as ballots were counted across the country.
The election results themselves gave the morning team plenty to discuss.
Democrats have taken control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
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