Tom Llamas will be the next anchor of “NBC Nightly News” after Lester Holt departs the role this summer.
The son of Cuban immigrants, Llamas, 45, will be the first Latino to anchor a weekday English language broadcast network evening newscast, a role that will make him one of the signature personalities of NBC News.
Llamas will remain anchor of the nightly program “Top Story,” which streams on NBC News Now at 7 p.m. Eastern. “Nightly” is fed to NBC stations live at 6:30 p.m.
Holt announced his plans to leave “Nightly” last week after a 10-year run. He will remain with NBC News as anchor of the true crime newsmagazine “Dateline.”
Llamas, a Miami native, is a favorite of NBC News Group Chairman Cesar Conde. Llamas was recruited to NBC News from ABC and has been rumored to be the “Nightly” heir apparent since he arrived.
Llamas started his journalism career as a 15-year-old intern at the local Telemundo station in Miami. After graduating from Loyola University New Orleans, he landed a job in 2000 as a production assistant at NBC News. He worked his way up as a correspondent for NBC’s Miami station and a local anchor for WNBC in New York.
Llamas jumped to ABC News in 2014, where he raised his profile covering the 2016 presidential campaign, and the following year was named Saturday anchor of “ABC World News.” He returned to NBC in 2021 and became anchor of “Top Story” in September of that year.