Lester Holt Leaving NBC Nightly News

THE NEWS

NBC's Lester Holt is stepping down as anchor of "NBC Nightly News" after 10 years, he announced on Monday.

Holt will remain at the network and focus full-time on "Dateline" beginning this summer when he leaves "NBC Nightly News."

TIMELINE

2003: Joining NBC News and Weekend Today

• Holt officially becomes part of the NBC News team after three years with MSNBC. He is named co-anchor of the weekend edition of NBC’s Today show​, a position he would hold for the next 12 years.

2007: Anchoring NBC Nightly News Weekends

• Holt is promoted to full-time anchor of the weekend editions of NBC Nightly News​. He takes over as the permanent weekend anchor after several years of substituting on the broadcast.

• In this role, Holt delivers the Saturday and Sunday evening news on NBC.

2011: Takes Over as Dateline NBC Anchor

• NBC announces Holt as the principal anchor for Dateline NBC, the network’s weekly primetime newsmagazine​.

2015: Interim Anchor of NBC Nightly News

• Holt is appointed anchor of the weekday NBC Nightly News​. This sudden promotion occurs after then-anchor Brian Williams is suspended for falsely claiming he was aboard a helicopter shot down in Iraq.​

February 24, 2025: Stepping Down from NBC Nightly News

• Lester Holt emails a memo to NBC News colleagues on Monday morning announcing “after 10 years... the time has come for me to step away from my role as anchor of Nightly News”​.

• In the note, Holt emphasizes that journalism remains his “true north” and expresses gratitude to his team, calling the past decade “the honor of a lifetime”​.

• He also reveals he will continue at NBC in a full-time capacity at Dateline, crafting deeper investigative stories – a move that allows him to stay with the network he joined back in 2000​.

• The network indicates the transition will occur in early summer 2025, though an exact final broadcast date is still to be determined​.

REACTIONS

Janelle Rodriguez, NBC News Executive Vice President, lauded Holt’s impact in a staff-wide note. “Because of Lester’s steady and thoughtful leadership, Nightly News has sustained its perch as a trusted and top news destination… Quite simply, Lester is the beating heart of this news organization,” Rodriguez wrote, emphasizing that Holt has earned “deep respect” from colleagues and viewers alike​.

Maria Shriver, former NBC News anchor(and a member of the Kennedy political family), applauded Holt on social media. “Oh wow. This is a big shift for NBC and for Lester — a class act!” Shriver tweeted upon hearing the news​.

Conservative commentator Dana Loesch: "Lester Holt and NBC stalked the parents in my town when they were the first in the nation fighting to take back our school board from radical Marxists. They ignored the minority parents leading the charge because it compromised their false narrative. Good riddance."

WHAT’S NEXT

No replacement has been announced yet, but attention has turned to potential successors within NBC’s ranks​.

One prominent name is Tom Llamas, the former ABC News correspondent who joined NBC in 2021.