Tom Llamas, who left a prominent anchor-in-waiting role at ABC News for one at NBC News in 2021, is no longer standing in queue.
Llamas will take over as anchor of “NBC Nightly News” at some point after Lester Holt steps down from the venerable evening newscast in early summer. Llamas, who has been hosting an early-evening program on the NBC News Now live-streaming service, will continue to do so, meaning that each weeknight, he will lead “Nightly” from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. eastern, then immediately move to the hour of his streaming program, “Top Story.”
“Anchoring ‘NBC Nightly News’ is a profound honor and one that carries tremendous responsibility. I look forward to working with the world class journalists at ‘Nightly News’ and ‘Top Story’ to bring viewers the most important stories every night,” Llamas said in a statement. “Lester Holt is a great man and one of the most trusted broadcasters of our time. Just like Lester, I promise to be devoted to our viewers and dedicated to the truth.” Holt is expected to take a full-time role with NBC News’ “Dateline,” which he has anchored for years.
The move has been one of the most poorly kept secrets in TV-news circles. When Llamas joined NBC News in 2021, he is believed to have done so with the understanding that he was in line for the “Nightly” job. His exit from ABC News was predicated on the notion that Llamas, then the weekend anchor for “World News Tonight,” would not get a chance to lead that program during the week, when David Muir holds sway over the nation’s most-watched evening-news option.
Llamas’ ascension will pit two former colleagues against one another in a never-ending battle for audience. While fewer people watch the broadcast networks’ evening newscasts than the group that assembled to see past anchors like Walter Cronkite or Tom Brokaw, the shows still attract a sizable crowd. During the week of February 24, “World News Tonight” captured an average overall audience of nearly 7.92 million, according to data from Nielsen, compared with 6.37 million for “NBC Nightly News” and nearly 4.28 million for “CBS Evening News.”
In past decades, evening anchors could devote all their energies to their mainstay program, but the decision to have Llamas stay with live-streaming suggests that’s no longer possible.
Approximately 86% of U.S. adults say they at least sometimes get news from a smartphone, computer or tablet, including 57% who say they do so often, according to a 2024 survey from Pew Research Center. The figures are almost identical to the share who got news from digital devices in 2023. Pew found that 63% get news from television at least sometimes. The percentage of Americans who often get news from TV has remained steady in recent years, according to Pew, and has hovered around 33%.
“Before, television viewers used to have to find you,” Llamas told Variety in 2021. “Now, we have to sort of find the viewer.”
Others have embraced similar change. John Dickerson, who co-anchors a version of “CBS Evening News” that was recently retooled, moves immediately after the half-hour linear program ends to a streaming counterpart that is known as “CBS Evening News Plus.”
Llamas is in his second stint with NBC. Earlier in his career, he worked for the NBC News specials unit, and then for MSNBC. He held forth at WTVJ, NBC’s Miami, Florida, station, between 2005 and 2009, then worked for WNBC in New York. He jumped to ABC News in 2014. Since his return to NBC, viewers have also seen him making appearances on “Today” and other programs.
“His seasoned background — both in the field and at the desk — uniquely positions him to carry forward the legacy of ‘Nightly News,’” said Janelle Rodriguez, the NBC News executive vice president who oversees both the evening newscast and streaming operations, in a statement.
