Dylan Dreyer and Al Roker were traveling for the third hour of Today’s upcoming Route 66 special in Springfield, Missouri, and both were absent from the show’s Wednesday, April 29, broadcast. Weekend Today’s Angie Lassman filled in for the pair while the pre-recorded segment, set to air Thursday, April 30, moved closer to broadcast.
The special is centered on Springfield, the birthplace of Route 66, and is sponsored by The Missouri Route 66 Centennial Commission. It will feature actor John Goodman and Missouri native country singer Chris Janson, adding star power to a trip Dreyer had been promoting since March 30, when she told viewers the hour would include the city’s local food, music and Route 66 stories.
Dreyer spent Tuesday, April 28, posting updates from the road in Instagram Story posts that showed the crew still in the airport. She said she was passing the time by sharing videos of her children with Roker, later posting photos of the Today group napping on chairs and collecting free toothbrushes from Delta Air Lines. In one caption, she said everyone was delirious and that Roker started a clap when she returned from the bathroom. Early Wednesday, she said the staff had reached Missouri at 3 a.m. local time.
The travel scramble mattered because the show’s third hour was taped in advance, even as the weekday broadcast went on without Dreyer and Roker. Laura Jarrett also arrived in Missouri to fill in for Craig Melvin during the special episode, underscoring how much of the on-air team had been shifted around to make the Route 66 feature work. Dreyer had teased the trip on Monday, April 27, when Roker said, “Come on down. We’re gonna have a great time…,” and she answered, “Without Craig.”
For Dreyer, the detour is part of a bigger family-and-work balance she has shown publicly before. She shares three sons, Calvin, Oliver and Rusty, with her estranged husband, Brian Fichera. But on this week’s broadcast, the question is simpler: whether the pre-taped Route 66 hour lands the way the team has been promising. With Springfield as the anchor, and John Goodman and Chris Janson on the lineup, the special is built to do exactly that.