Tom Llamas Named Lester Holt’s Replacement as Anchor of NBC Nightly News

Well, that didn’t take long. Lester Holt’s replacement as the lead anchor on NBC’s Nightly News program has been revealed.

How did we get here?

Lester Holt Announces He’s Stepping Down as the Anchor of NBC Nightly News

It was just last week when the program’s beloved anchor, Lester Holt, announced he plans to step away from the show this summer. 

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Holt has anchored the show (which is network’s flagship news broadcast) for nearly a decade.

He will stay with the network, after his departure from the show, however. He is going to continue as the lead anchor of NBC’s Dateline.

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At the time we wondered: who will replace Holt? Well, now we know:

Tom Llamas to Replace Lester Holt

It's not really a surprise, but one of NBC’s most familiar faces will replace Holt.

The network announced today that Tom Llamas will replace Holt this summer as the lead anchor of the daily news program.

Llamas started his career at NBC news before moving to ABC News as one of their lead correspondents (and he filled in for David Muir on ABC World News Tonight) in 2015.

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He rejoined the NBC news team as senior national correspondent in 2021.

In today’s announcement, network officials praised Llamas.

“Tom has the winning combination of journalistic excellence, passionate storytelling and unyielding integrity — all characteristics that have long been trademarks of ‘NBC Nightly News,’” NBC News executive vice president of programming Janelle Rodriguez said in a statement.

“Additionally, he’s been instrumental in growing NBC News NOW into the leading streaming news network, helping to introduce NBC News to a new generation of viewers.”

Llamas will continue to anchor ‘Top Story’ on the networks’ streaming platform, NBC News Now.

An exact date for the transition from Lester Holt to Tom Llamas was not announced today.