Veteran “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt announced Monday he is stepping away from the program he has hosted for the last decade at the start of the summer.
“The time has come for me to step away from my role as anchor of ‘Nightly News.’ 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 said in a memo to staffers Monday.
Holt’s exit will coincide with his 10th anniversary of being named the “Nightly News” anchor in June 2015; prior to getting the top news job at NBC, Holt hosted the weekend edition of the nightly news program for eight years and was a co-anchor on “Weekend TODAY” for 12 years.
Despite stepping away from “Nightly News,” Holt said he will continue to anchor “Dateline NBC,” the weekly news magazine he has hosted since 2011, in a “full capacity.”
“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,” Holt wrote in his memo. “As a 20-year-old radio reporter on the police beat chasing breaking news around San Francisco, I could never have imagined my career path would unfold in the way it has. What an amazing ride.”
A rep for ‘NBC News’ declined to comment on if the channel has any plans for Holt’s replacement at this time.
Holt and NBC News typically came in second place to ABC and David Muir’s “World News Tonight” in the ratings last year; that trend has continued in 2025, with ABC’s nightly news program averaging 8.3 million viewers the week of Jan. 27, compared to 7.3 million for NBC and Holt during that same time.
Janelle Rodriguez, EVP of Programming at NBC News, called Holt “the beating heart” of NBC’s news operation in a memo to staff on Monday.
“Because of Lester’s steady and thoughtful leadership, ‘Nightly News’ has sustained its perch as a trusted and top news destination for millions of viewers across America,” Rodriguez said. “He has led the network during some of the country’s most fraught and challenging times in the past decade, most notably during the early days of the pandemic when Lester’s voice was a source of comfort each night for so many.”
Holt, in his memo, thanked the “formidable” news teams behind “Dateline” and “Nightly News,” saying it has been a “true privilege” to work with such a great team. He initially joined NBC News in 2000. His exit comes amid a flurry of high-profile newsroom changes, with NBC chief political analyst Chuck Todd leaving the channel last month, and MSNBC removing Joy Reid and Alex Taylor from their shows this week, among other recent switches.
