Anchor Lester Holt stepped down from his role as anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News on May 30, 2025. In his place, the network has appointed Tom Llamas, who becomes the first Latino to lead the flagship evening news broadcast.
Llamas, 45, made his debut as anchor on June 2 with a segment titled “The Cost of Denial,” which explored the challenges Americans face with health and housing insurance. Before this role, he served as a correspondent for the network, producing significant reports—some from Latin America, where his fluent Spanish proved invaluable.
He began his journalism career as an intern at Telemundo, where he provided logistical support to reporters for news coverage. He later advanced professionally through roles at NBC affiliates WTVJ and WNBC before joining ABC World News Tonight.
In 2021, the journalist, whose Cuban parents arrived in Florida as refugees, returned to NBC News, where he worked as a correspondent and anchor of Top Story with Tom Llamas.
With his new role, Llamas becomes the only Latino currently anchoring a national evening newscast on a major U.S. television network. Cuban-American journalist José Díaz-Balart serves as the weekend anchor for the same broadcast.
The Nightly News broadcast began 70 years ago, but never before had a Hispanic American been at the forefront as its anchor, making Llamas’s appointment a historic milestone for representation in U.S. media. He will now deliver the news daily on the national U.S. network.
