“It has been an honor to lead this program and an honor to be welcomed into your homes,” Lester Holt said Friday, signing off for the final time as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News. “I’m so grateful for your trust around here. Facts matter, words matter, journalism matters, and you matter.”
In a news-packed show leading with tornados in the South, Elon Musk‘s DOGE exit and drug use reports, Sean “Diddy” Combs sex-trafficking trial, wildfires in Canada, and Taylor Swift finally buying back her music, Holt’s departure was one of the biggest stories of all
Holt, 66, announced earlier this year he would be stepping down as anchor after 10 years in the spot, though he isn’t disappearing from the Comcast-owned NBC. He will remain with the network in a full-time role hosting Dateline.
Today, it was that role at the newsmagazine series that got a shout-out from Holt. “I’ll see you on Dateline. In the meantime, please continue to take care of yourself, and each other,” he said as the Nightly News staff came on the set to share the farewell and offer Holt a round of applause. “And I’ll do the same,” he added as the show cut to a look back at Holt’s anchor debut in 2015 to today.
Here’s Holt’s goodbye:
On Monday, Tom Llamas will debut as anchor, and also take the title of managing editor. When he returned to NBC News in 2021, there was speculation he would be in line to succeed Holt, as Llamas had been weekend anchor on ABC News’ World News Tonight. In his new role, Llamas will continue anchoring the streaming newscast Top Story for NBC News Now.
(L-R) Joe Biden and Lester Holt
NBC News
With clips of sit-downs with the likes of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, meeting Pope Leo XIV and showing off his impressive bass-playing skills, Friday morning saw Holt feted on Today. “Class act” Holt, as Savannah Guthrie called him, told the morning show that part of leaving Nightly News had to do with him thinking lately of “what’s the back part of my career going to look like?”
“The time seemed to be right” for him to transition to a new role on-air, Holt told Today.
In a quickly shifting media landscape, NBC Nightly News for the most part has been in second place to ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir in the broadcast news wars. Having said that, the Peacock network has touted instances, like during the Olympics, where it has beat its rival.
Although evening news audiences aren’t what they once were, they are still significant for linear television and typically outperform most cable news programming.
ABC’s World News Tonight at times is the most watched show of the week in all of broadcast television. In the first quarter, it averaged 8.13 million viewers, compared to 6.6 million for Nightly News and 4.59 million for CBS Evening News. In the 25-54 demo, World News Tonight averaged 1.16 million viewers, compared to 983,000 for NBC Nightly News, and 657,000 for CBS Evening News.
There is a bit of a risk for networks in shifting anchors, as evening news viewership habits tend not to budge much unless there is a major change. CBS Evening News switched up its anchors earlier this year in a switch that leaned in to 60 Minutes-style correspondent storytelling, with John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois succeeding Norah O’Donnell. But the newscast has been down year over year.
As part of the NBC Nightly News transition, spots ran Friday during the show for Llamas’ anchor debut next week. Unlike when Holt took over for the scandal-singed Brian Williams, this change of anchors has the advantage of being a smooth handover.
Below are Holt’s final words tonight.
Before we go tonight, a word about me. You may recall the announcement back some months ago that I would be leaving my post here at Nightly News in order to expand my role as host of Dateline. Well, today is that day. After 10 years, this is my last Nightly News broadcast as anchor.
It has been an honor to lead this program and an honor to be welcomed into your homes.
I’m so grateful for your trust around here. Facts matter, words matter, journalism matters, and you matter. Over the last decade, we have shared some dark and harrowing days and nights from our country, the pandemic, mass shootings, natural disasters, each testing our resilience and our compassion. That’s why I often like to leave you with something to smile about, moments that reassure and connect us. I’ll miss our evenings together, and I will miss the team that puts it all together, my dear friends and my colleagues. But for now, I just want to say thank you to my incredibly supportive and patient family and all of you. NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas premieres Monday, and I wish Tom great success.
I’ll see you on Dateline. In the meantime, please continue to take care of yourself, and each other. And I’ll do the same.
