On Tuesday, “Today” show hosts Hoda Kotb, Craig Melvin, and Carson Daly joined in an on-air prayer for Savannah Guthrie and her mother, led by the archbishop of New York, Ronald Hicks. “Bring hope, peace, some resolution to all of this, and let her know of the great love and support and prayers that surround her,” Hicks said, as the “Today” team appeared to get emotional, more than two weeks into the ordeal of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance.

While the priority inside NBC remains supporting Guthrie through this incredibly painful time and covering the developing story surrounding one of its news division’s biggest names, the situation has created a cloud over “Today,” an extremely lucrative television franchise. And, as uncomfortable as it is, planning for what might come next for the show is surely on the minds of NBC executives at 30 Rock, according to conversations with half a dozen television news veterans, weighing various scenarios and options about what they can do if their star anchor is off for an extended stretch, or worse, chooses not to return to a program that generates hundreds of millions in advertising revenue.

“This sad moment in ‘Today’ history illustrates the positives of seeing everybody rally together behind Savannah and the show doing as well as it is during an Olympics,” one veteran TV executive told Status, pointing to the elevated ratings. But what the executive called an “incredible testament to the strength of the family” has to be balanced against concerns that there is “not a natural in-house successor” to Guthrie at the moment.