Lester Holt is leaving “NBC Nightly News.”
The journalist announced his departure Monday after anchoring the show for a decade.
He reflected on his “amazing ride” in a memo to “Nightly” and “Dateline” staffers.
“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,” he wrote.
“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.”
While Holt, 65, did not specify the date of his departure, he is expected to step down at the beginning of the summer.
His successor has yet to be named — but Page Six hears that Tom Llamas is widely believed to be taking over.
“It’s def Tom,” an NBC insider tells us exclusively. “It’s basically a race between Tom and Hallie Jackson, but Tom is 99 percent.”
Jackson, notably, is the anchor of the Sunday edition of “NBC Nightly News” and the senior Washington correspondent at the network.
As for Llamas, he was named senior national correspondent for NBC News in 2021.
The Post reported last year that there have been rampant rumors Llamas, 45, was hired to replace Holt.
When Holt signed a four-year deal to stay at NBC in 2021, Page Six reported that he insisted on the title of managing editor in order to prevent a perceived threat from Llamas, who had just joined the network from ABC’s “World News Tonight.”
A source told Page Six at the time that Llamas was “clearly being groomed for a big role,” while Holt “negotiated a bigger title to stave off the threat.”
Holt will maintain a full-time role at “Dateline,” where he has been a principal anchor since 2011, upon leaving “Nightly News.”
After 19 years with CBS, Holt joined NBC in 2003 as a substitute anchor for “Nightly” and the “Today” show as well as a co-anchor for “Weekend Today.”
He began anchoring the weekend edition of “Nightly” in 2007 before taking over the late Brian Williams’ weekday role in 2015.
NBC News’ executive vice president of programming, Janelle Rodrigez, praised Holt in a letter to staff members Monday.
“He has led the network during some of the country’s most fraught and challenging times in the past decade,” she wrote.
Rodriguez went on to call her colleague “the beating heart of this news organization.”
Page Six reported in 2024 that Holt has been making plans for his post-“Nightly” life, including a tell-all about his time as a jazz bassist.
According to an industry insider, there have been multiple multiple seven-figure offers for the book.
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