Tom Llamas said he’s “excited” to take the helm of “Nightly News” and will live by his tenets of being “tough but fair” while reporting “without fear or favor.”
Llamas succeeds Lester Holt as anchor and managing editor of “Nightly News” in a historic move making him the first weekday Latino evening news anchor of an English-language show.
“I’m a little nervous, but I’m looking forward to the challenge,” Llamas told “TODAY” anchor Savannah Guthrie in a sit-down interview.
His new role is the peak of his decadeslong career in journalism, that started when he was just 15.
“Never, ever in my wildest dreams, did I think I could get to that point … You get a new opportunity, a new challenge, and you get to a point where you think, ‘Wow, maybe that could be me,’” Llamas reflected. “You just kind of keep running your race, and that’s what I’ve been doing. It’s like everybody dreams of this happening to them.”
He said he’ll come into work with the same fire and fuel he had when he was younger working overnights in the industry “because I know this is a calling.”
Llamas said that little by little, “I do want to put my stamp” on “Nightly News.”
“I’d like to launch an investigative series into the insurance industry. I think people are having a tough time getting house insurance, getting medical insurance, trying to find a doctor, trying to get their kids covered. So I think we should take a look at that a little closer,” he explained.
Holt announced in February that he planned to step down over the summer. He will remain a fixture at NBC with a full-time role at “Dateline,” where he has been the principal anchor for nearly 15 years.
In addition to his duties at “Nightly News,” Llamas will continue to anchor “Top Story,” a daily evening newscast that streams on NBC News NOW.
Llamas started out as an intern at a local Telemundo station before kick-starting his professional journalism career at NBC News, working as an overnight production assistant and then a political campaign embed. He rose through the news business as a local journalist at WTVJ in Miami and WNBC in New York.
He later moved to ABC, serving as the network’s chief national affairs correspondent and anchoring weekend editions of “World News Tonight.”
Llamas returned to NBC News in 2021 as a senior national correspondent and then took the helm at “Top Story.” He was a regular fill-in anchor on “Nightly News.”
In recent years, Llamas has led coverage of major breaking news and political events for NBC News Now, reporting on pivotal storylines such as the Israel-Hamas war; Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the July 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump; and the Tokyo and the Paris Olympics.
He has interviewed key world leaders, including Trump during the 2016 presidential contest, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Llamas, who grew up in Miami in a Cuban American family, credited his parents with inspiring his journey.
“My parents came here as immigrants. They came here with nothing. Their son is now going to be the anchor of ‘Nightly News,’ one of the biggest and most important newscasts in our country. What it tells me is that the American dream is still alive. I know that because I’m living it,” he said.
He also praised his three children, calling them “my biggest cheerleaders,” and his wife, a television producer and “his best editor,” with helping him soar in his career.
