Lester Holt will step down as ‘NBC Nightly News’ anchor. Why? And who will replace him?

Lester Holt, anchor of the “NBC Nightly News” and one of the most recognizable and respected journalists in broadcasting, is giving up perhaps the most coveted of jobs in all of TV news.

Holt announced Monday that he will step down as “Nightly News” anchor in early summer after nearly 10 years behind the desk. He will stay on at NBC News, including in an expanded role on “Dateline.” But it’s the end of an era for a journalist with an impeccable reputation. In 2018, Holt was honored with the Poynter Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism.

Holt didn’t give a specific reason as to why he is leaving, but told colleagues in a memo, “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.”

He wrote in the memo that this move will allow him to stay at NBC for years to come, but it feels like he could have continued doing that as the “Nightly News” anchor. At 65, Holt is still on top of his game as an anchor. The newscast's ratings, while nowhere near what they were in the heyday of evening news of 30 and 40 years ago, remain respectable compared to other TV programs.

As The New York Times John Koblin noted, “The evening newscasts do not hold nearly the same clout they did decades ago, but they still draw big audiences. Since September, the ‘NBC Nightly News’ is the second most-watched evening newscast, drawing an average audience of 6.3 million viewers. ABC’s ‘World News Tonight,’ anchored by David Muir, draws 7.9 million viewers a night, and the ‘CBS Evening News’ has an audience of 4.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen.”

Janelle Rodriguez, executive vice president of programming for NBC News, wrote in a message to staff, “He has led the network during some of the country’s most fraught and challenging times in the past decade. Quite simply, Lester is the beating heart of this news organization.”

So who’s next? NBC News hasn’t named a successor, but the leading candidate would appear to be Tom Llamas, who anchors a daily digital show on NBC News NOW.

Holt will become the second major network anchor to depart in 2025. Norah O’Donnell stepped down as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in January after five years. The new “CBS Evening” news is trying a new format with two anchors (John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois), as well as reports from Washington from “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan.

However, TV Insider’s Martin Holmes reports that the CBS newscast is still trying to find its footing in the ratings. Holmes wrote, “The show launched with 5.2 million total viewers but slipped to 4.8 million viewers on average for its first week on air. It shed another 300,000 viewers in its second week and, by the third week, had fallen to an average of just under 4.5 million total viewers.”

Another thought

Variety’s Daniel D'Addario has a thought-provoking piece in the wake of Holt stepping down as “Nightly News” anchor: “From Lester Holt to Norah O’Donnell, Why Are Anchors Leaving the News Desk?” D’Addario also noted that Hoda Kotb recently left as co-host of NBC’s “Today” show.

D’Addario wrote, “It’s easy to see why, for a Holt or for an O’Donnell, leaving the grind of daily newscasting holds its appeals; O’Donnell’s new posting as senior correspondent leaves her, notionally, free to pursue high-profile bookings across CBS News platforms, just as Holt can devote more time to impact journalism outside the day-to-day churn.”

AP’s court battle with Trump

It was a case of some bad news, but a little good news for The Associated Press in its battle to regain full access to cover the Trump White House. Trump has banned the AP from Air Force One and certain media events at the White House because it continues to use the title “Gulf of Mexico” instead of what Trump wants it called — the “Gulf of America.”

The AP has taken its case to court. And while U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden on Monday refused to immediately order the White House to restore access to the AP through a temporary restraining order, he did urge the Trump administration to reconsider its ban and added that case law “is uniformly unhelpful to the White House.”

The decision is only temporary. Another hearing is scheduled for March 20 to hear arguments over the AP’s request for a preliminary injunction.

In a statement, AP spokesperson Lauren Easton said, “We look forward to our next hearing on March 20 where we will continue to stand for the right of the press and the public to speak freely without government retaliation. This is a fundamental American freedom.”

McFadden, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, said in his ruling Monday that the AP had not suffered “irreparable harm” as a result of the ban. He said even if the AP is banned from events where news happens, it still “can get access to the same information” from the pool notes that are given to all members of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

However, when it came to the ban, McFadden said it appeared “discriminatory” and “problematic.”

Once again showing how unbiased the AP is, here’s a solid, just-the-facts recap of Monday’s events from the AP’s Matt Sedensky.

Troubling tweet

Meanwhile, Ed Martin, Trump’s nominee and the current interim acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, put out a disturbing tweet on Monday: “As President Trumps’ lawyers, we are proud to fight to protect his leadership as our President and we are vigilant in standing against entities like the AP that refuse to put America first.”

Aside from the grammatical error (it should read Trump’s lawyers, not Trumps’ lawyers), the tweet was quickly criticized for a U.S. attorney to refer to themselves as a lawyer for a president and not a lawyer whose job it is to uphold the law and the Constitution of the United States.

MSNBC moves made official

Over the weekend, news broke that MSNBC was planning a major programming shakeup with, most notably, Joy Reid’s weekday show being canceled.

Well, the changes became official on Monday.

As reported, Reid’s show is ending and will be replaced by a show hosted by Symone Sanders Townsend, Michael Steele and Alicia Menendez, current co-hosts of “The Weekend.” They will anchor the weekday 7 p.m. hour Tuesday through Friday, plus two hours from 7 to 9 p.m. on Mondays.

In its announcement, MSNBC confirmed that Reid is leaving the network. The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin tweeted that Reid is in talks to launch a new venture on Substack. Reid hosted her final show Monday night and closed by thanking her staff and the viewers.

Meanwhile, Jen Psaki, whose stock has been rising since she joined MSNBC in 2022 after serving as White House press secretary under President Joe Biden, is getting a major promotion. Psaki will host the 9 p.m. Eastern show on Tuesdays through Fridays. That’s a spot previously held by Alex Wagner, who will no longer host but will stay with MSNBC as a senior political analyst.

For now, Rachel Maddow is hosting the 9 p.m. slot. At the end of April, following Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, Maddow will return to hosting just on Mondays, and Psaki will host the rest of the week.

These are the first major moves since ​​Rebecca Kutler was named the network’s permanent president on Feb. 12, although a shakeup in programming reportedly has been in the works for weeks. Kutler had been serving as interim president since Rashida Jones announced she was stepping down in January. Kutler joined MSNBC as senior vice president of content strategy in 2022 after a long stint at CNN.

In a memo to staff on Monday, Kutler wrote, “I am sharing updates to our weekday and weekend lineups. I had hoped to share this with all of you directly and understand the frustration that you first learned about this over the weekend and not from me.”

Kutler was referring to the fact that several outlets broke the news about the programming changes over the weekend before any official announcements were made. Most of that reporting centered around the cancellation of Reid’s show.

In a statement, Reid said, “We supported and defended real history, the 1619 Project, diversity, equity and inclusion and access to books for our children and students. And we did it all with a smile and a sense of humor.”

In a YouTube video interview, Reid said, “I’ve been through every emotion, from anger, rage, disappointment, hurt.”

Mullin reported, “The network’s leaders made the change primarily because they thought the viewership figures for Ms. Reid’s show were underwhelming, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. So far this year, Ms. Reid’s program has lagged far behind ‘The Ingraham Angle,’ the rival show on Fox News, in total viewership at that hour. But during that period, it has outperformed a rival program on CNN, ‘Erin Burnett OutFront’ in total viewership. Both shows on Fox and CNN have outperformed Ms. Reid’s program in the key advertising demographic, according to Nielsen data.”

It very well might have been a ratings decision and not a political one. Reid was quite critical of Trump during her time on the air, but that apparently had nothing to do with MSNBC’s decision. The Washington Post’s Jeremey Barr reported, “A source with knowledge of the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said that Reid’s departure should not be read as a move to the political center, considering that Reid has long been an outspoken critic of the president.”

Maddow, meanwhile, took MSNBC suits to task on her 9 p.m. show Monday, saying that “there is no colleague for whom I have had more affection and more respect than Joy Reid.” Maddow added, “I love everything about her. I have learned so much from her. I have so much more to learn from her. I do not want to lose her as a colleague here at MSNBC. And, personally, I think it is a bad mistake to let her walk out the door. It is not my call and I understand that. But that’s what I think.”

Maddow wasn't done. She said, “I will tell you, it is also unnerving to see that on a network where we’ve got two — count them — two nonwhite hosts in prime time, both of our nonwhite hosts in prime time are losing their shows, as is Katie Phang on the weekend. And that feels worse than bad, no matter who replaces them. That feels indefensible. And I do not defend it.”

There might not be anyone else at MSNBC with the clout to say what Maddow did and get away with it, and she deserves credit for speaking her mind to stand up for what she believes.

And a bit more

There were a few other MSNBC changes. The Daily Beast’s Corbin Bolies noted, “​​Anchors Jonathan Capehart, Katie Phang, and Ayman Mohyeldin are losing their eponymous weekend shows. Capehart and Mohyeldin will instead be one of multiple hosts of separate editions of ‘The Weekend’ at 7 a.m. and 6 p.m., respectively, while Phang will remain with the network as a legal correspondent with no anchor slot. Its other Miami-based anchor, José Díaz-Balart, will also lose his show, though he will remain as host of NBC’s weekend edition of ‘Nightly News.’”

Of course he did

To no one’s surprise, Donald Trump posted a lengthy post on his Truth Social criticizing MSNBC while taking shots at Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow and Alex Wagner.

More disturbingly in his post, Trump wrote, “This whole corrupt operation is nothing more than an illegal arm of the Democrat Party. They should be forced to pay vast sums of money for the damage they’ve done to our Country. Fake News is an UNPARDONABLE SIN!” 

Another Kelly meltdown

Former Fox News and fired NBC host Megyn Kelly kicked up a hornets’ nest over the weekend when she told the Philadelphia Eagles in a tweet to “Go F yourselves” because they had turned down a chance to visit the White House following their victory in the Super Bowl.

One problem: The Eagles haven’t been invited to the White House.

Now, to be clear, the Eagles might still decline an invitation to the White House. It’s also entirely possible that if the White House thinks the Eagles might say no, it could decide to save itself the embarrassment and not extend an invitation. Or, of course, the Eagles could be invited and attend.

Kelly followed up with another tweet Monday saying the Eagles turned down the invitation, as she amplified over the weekend, “Could be (hopefully?) fake news!” (Kelly’s original comments were a retweet of another person’s tweet.)

Anyway, it seems like every time we turn around Kelly is telling someone to go (expletive) themselves — like here and here and here.

Meanwhile, check this out from Mediaite’s Isaac Schorr: “‘She Is a Racist!’ Don Lemon Loses It on ‘Gauche and Unseemly’ Megyn Kelly in Scorched Earth Rant.”

Media tidbits

• Once again, President Donald Trump has turned to conservative media for an important role in his administration. He named right-wing podcaster and pundit Dan Bongino as deputy FBI director. Bongino is a former U.S. Secret Service agent, but like his new boss, FBI Director Kash Patel, he has no FBI experience. The Associated Press’ Adriana Gomez Licon and Eric Tucker wrote, “The selection places two staunch Trump allies atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency at a time when Democrats have raised alarms that the Republican president could seek to use the FBI to target his adversaries.” Meanwhile, Bongino is known for regularly arguing with media and others with whom he disagrees politically. Media Matters’ Matt Gertz has this piece: “Dan Bongino is proof that Donald Trump wants politicized law enforcement.”
• The Washington Post’s Philip Bump with “The right-wing media machine is hitting a wall.”
• Semafor’s Max Tani with “Reporters launch new TikTok-like news platform.”
• ESPN announced Monday that Richard Jefferson will join play-by-play announcer Mike Breen and analyst Doris Burke for the NBA Finals. The trio also will work the NBA’s Western Conference series. Jefferson, who played in the NBA for 17 seasons, joined ESPN in 2019 and has worked both games and in the studio. This will be his first time calling the NBA Finals.
• Al Trautwig, longtime studio host on New York’s MSG Network who worked on Yankees, Rangers and Knicks broadcasts, has died. He was 68. Trautwig spent 30 years at MSG up until 2021. During his career, Trautwig called an array of sports, including 16 Olympic games for ABC and NBC. Here’s more from the New York Post’s Christian Arnold.

Hot type

• The great Roberta Flack has died. The singer-pianist was 88. The New York Times’ Giovanni Russonello has this remembrance. And here’s the Times’ Ben Sisario with “Roberta Flack’s 11 Essential Songs.”

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Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].