'Surreal moment': Lester Holt signs off, passes baton to Tom Llamas on NBC Nightly News
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Lester Holt officially signed off Friday, May 30, as the anchor of NBC Nightly News, following his final broadcast. He will transition to Dateline NBC full time now. He is now handing off the baton to Tom Llamas.
KXAN’s Avery Travis spoke with Tom Llamas about when he received the announcement he would take over as Lester’s replacement and what his future holds for him.
Read a transcription of the interview below, or watch in the video player above. Some responses have been edited for clarity.
Avery Travis: Tom, congratulations and thank you so much for joining us today. I want to start with when you found out you had been named the new anchor of NBC Nightly News. What were you feeling in that moment? And did you ever dream of being in this position?
Tom Llamas: Yeah, you know, it was a surreal moment. It was incredibly emotional. There was every emotion you can imagine, happiness, laughter, anxiety. I mean, there was there was everything. It was great. And it was really great to tell my wife, who has always been by my side, and she’s just been so incredible, my kids as well. I mean, we couldn’t tell all my kids because it hadn’t been announced yet. And my little guy’s got a really big mouth. He’s only 7 years old, so he learned pretty much last. But then just to talk to my parents, who sacrificed so much for me. I mean, there were a lot of tears there as well, but it’s been a lot of happiness, and now it’s excitement to kind of get going and to take over.
Avery Travis: Well, just so deserving to be stepping into this big role. We want to note for people, you’re not just the anchor, but the managing editor. So talk about what kind of pressures you’re expecting taking over this job, and how are you preparing right now?
Llamas: Yeah, you know the managing editor. It’s interesting, because not everyone knows really what that means. So as a news anchor, you obviously read the news, but that’s about, I’d say, a small percentage of the job. Most of the job, probably more than 90%, happens before that light comes on and millions of people tune in and how we put the show together. And as a managing editor, you’re working with the reporters and the producers on the stories. What stories are inside to cover the questions we want to ask, the investigations we want to launch, and then we have this great franchise at the end of the show — there’s Good News Tonight. Because regardless if you’re a Democrat or Republican or you’re independent — there are stories that bring us together as Americans. And I always want to spotlight those stories at the end of the day, because we live in some wild times. But there are still things that bring us together as a nation.
