Lester Holt is to step down as anchor of “NBC Nightly News” after a decade behind the desk of the flagship evening newscast, NBC News and others reported.
The veteran journalist, who has been in the role since 2015, is reportedly leaving in early summer.
The 65-year-old will move full-time to fronting NBC’s news magazine show, “Dateline.”
“After 10 years, 17 if you include my years on the weekends, 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 colleagues Monday, per Semafor.
“But before we play the walk off music, I have another announcement. I’m excited to report I will be continuing as anchor of ‘Dateline NBC,’ but for the first time in a full time capacity whereby I will be expanding my footprint on the broadcast and crafting ‘Dateline’ hours on subjects I care deeply about. I am thrilled to be able to work more closely with my enormously talented friends at ‘Dateline’ as the broadcast continues to grow and attract new viewers in new places.”
Holt, whose television journalism career began in the early 1980s, took over at “Nightly News” from Brian Williams amid controversy surrounding the broadcaster’s reporting of a 2003 flight with a U.S. Army helicopter crew in Iraq.
NBC News has not publicly named who will succeed Holt as anchor of the show, which averages around 7 million daily viewers.
Holt’s “Nightly News” tenure came against the backdrop of three U.S. general elections, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia invading Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.
“He has led the network during some of the country’s most fraught and challenging times in the past decade,” Janelle Rodriguez, executive vice president of programming for NBC News, wrote in a message to staff. “Quite simply, Lester is the beating heart of this news organization.”