Lester Holt Details Departure From NBC Nightly News Ahead of Final Broadcast

But during those unprecedented times, while he was busy pushing through tech issues and phone calls with engineers to successfully host Nightly News from his home, Holt’s iconic tagline was born.

“These were dark days,” he recalled of the COVID-19 pandemic, “and we’re telling stories of freezer trucks on the streets of New York with the remains of people.

“I just needed to have some kind of a signal,” he added, “or some message to the audience that said, ‘Hey, I get it. We’re all in this together, and this is tough.’ And so I started saying, ‘Take care of yourself and each other.’”

And though he later found out that he may have accidentally adopted that line from Jerry Springer, it became a permanent part of the legacy he built during his many years hosting Nightly News.