Lester Holt to step down as anchor of NBC’s flagship ‘Nightly News’ after a decade

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — NBC’s veteran Lester Holt is stepping down as anchor of the network’s flagship “Nightly News” broadcast in the coming months.

Holt, who has been the face of “Nightly News” for a decade, won’t be leaving NBC altogether, however. In a memo to staff Monday, he said he would be expanding his work on NBC’s “Dateline,” taking on a full-time role.

The transition is expected to take place early this summer. No firm date or successor for “NBC Nightly News” has been named yet.

“It has truly been the honor of a lifetime to work with each of you every day, keeping journalism as our true north and our viewers at the center of everything we do,” Holt wrote in his note thanking colleagues. “A smile comes to my face when I think that with Nightly News, and Dateline, I have now anchored two of the most successful and iconic television news programs in broadcast history.”

Janelle Rodriguez, executive vice president of NBC News Programming, applauded Holt’s legacy at “Nightly News” and reiterated that the anchor will stay at NBC “for years to come.”

“Quite simply, Lester is the beating heart of this news organization,” Rodriguez wrote in a prepared statement.

Holt, 65, joined NBC back in 2000. He became the permanent anchor of “Nightly News” in June 2015 — replacing Brian Williams after anchoring weekend editions of the show for eight years. And he has been the principal anchor of “Dateline” since September 2011.

According to NBC, “Nightly News” currently averages at around 7 million viewers each week. The network says the roots of its flagship show date back to 1948, when NBC first began broadcasting regularly-scheduled news programming each night. And the “NBC Nightly News” name was born in 1970.

NBC’s “Dateline” series, currently in its 33rd season, debuted in 1992. The series has made a name for itself in true crime programming — which has expanded into a top-ranked podcast and some scripted television content, including a spinoff of “The Thing About Pam.” But “Dateline” also covers a mix of breaking news, investigative journalism and other human interest stories.

NBC isn’t the only major news network to see a shift in its anchor line up this year. Holt’s announcement arrives just weeks after Norah O’Donnell’s final broadcast of “CBS Evening News,” for example, where she had been the network’s top anchor since 2019. And, on NBC’s dayside programming, Hoda Kotb’s last day as one of the lead anchors for “Today” was Jan. 10.

MSNBC, which is set to no longer have any corporate connection to NBC News once a spinoff formally takes effect later this year, is also seeing some changes to its prime time line up. In a Monday memo to staff, MSNBC’s new president Rebecca Kutler announced that Joy Reid would be leaving the network — marking an end to the political analyst and anchor’s show, “The ReidOut.”