“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 a memo to NBC staff this morning, via The Hollywood Reporter. “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 first took over as Nightly News anchor a decade ago, following Brian Williams’ departure in 2015. He first joined the network in 2000, and has been contributing to Dateline since 2011. In his new role, Holt will be “expanding my footprint on the broadcast and crafting Dateline hours on subjects I care deeply about,” as he wrote in his memo. “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.”
The move seems entirely amicable, as NBC News VP Janelle Rodriguez deemed Holt “the beating heart of this news organization” in her own memo to staff, per THR. “He’s earned deep respect and reverence from our newsroom, industry colleagues and, most importantly, viewers,” she wrote. In his note, Holt said he would “firm up the date” of his last broadcast and keep staff in the loop.
2025 has already seen a significant changing of the broadcast TV guard. Holt’s NBC colleague Hoda Kotb departed Today in January, and just a few weeks later, broadcast journalist and staunch Trump critic Jim Acosta parted ways with CNN. NBC News reporter Chuck Todd followed suit a few days later, and just yesterday, it was announced that MSNBC had canceled Joy Reid’s The ReidOut. The evening news show will reportedly be replaced by a new series from Weekend hosts Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele, and Alicia Menendez. As of this writing, Holt’s successor has not been announced.
