Lester Holt To Exit NBC Nightly News But Will Continue On Dateline

As he wrote in his memo, Holt will continue to anchor NBC Nightly News until 'the start of summer,' but the network has not yet named a successor

On Feb. 24, Lester Holt, who has been the managing editor and anchor of NBC’s flagship “NBC Nightly News” program for the past 10 years, announced that he is stepping down from that role but will continue his work on “Dateline.”

According to NBC News, Holt wrote a note to staffers on both shows outlining his reasoning for exiting NBC’s nightly news program.

“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 the note. “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.”

Holt was named the program’s anchor in June 2015 after he ran the weekend editions of the broadcast for eight years, co-anchored “Weekend TODAY” for 12 years, and served as the principal anchor of “Dateline” since September 2011.

According to The New York Times, the 65-year-old Holt took over the show after NBC was rocked by a scandal involving Brian Williams, the show’s anchor before Holt, Williams was placed on leave and moved to MSNBC after he embellished a story about a helicopter attack in Iraq.

Holt, as his memo noted, kept journalistic integrity as the bedrock of the shows he worked on.

According to a note Janelle Rodriguez, the executive vice president of programming at NBC News, wrote to her staff, Holt is the heart of the news organization’s programming and a guiding light.

“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. 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. He’s taken viewers to the frontlines of every major story and sat down with world leaders, skillfully eliciting answers on consequential issues. Quite simply, Lester is the beating heart of this news organization.”

Rodriguez continued, “He’s earned deep respect and reverence from our newsroom, industry colleagues, and, most importantly, viewers. What’s equally remarkable is how Lester has masterfully filled this esteemed role with extraordinary grace and humility. He’s proven time and time again why he stands among the great legends of broadcast news.”

As he wrote in his memo, Holt will continue to anchor “NBC Nightly News” until “the start of summer,” but the network has not yet named a successor.

According to Variety, whoever fills Holt’s shoes will have a tall task. Holt’s departure, alongside Joy Reid’s ouster at MSNBC and the exits of Chuck Todd, Hoda Kotb, and Norah O’Donnell at their networks, all point to a news media in flux, partly due to market trends, a president who has signaled his hostility and willingness to sue over reports critical of his actions, and more.

Daniel D’Addario writes, “Many things in the TV business are cyclical, but the slow decline in relevance of TV news suddenly feels a lot less slow and a lot more vertiginous. It’s easy to see why its stars want off the ride, but hard to know where that leaves the rest of us, in the audience at home and in an electorate increasingly divorced from fact.”