Lester Holt Details Departure From NBC Nightly News
Originally appeared on E! Online
Lester Holt wants his NBC family to continue to take care of themselves and each other.
Ahead of the longtime anchor's final NBC Nightly News broadcast, the 66-year-old—who has been a staple of the network's flagship news series for a decade—shared a bit of insight into the new chapter he's stepping into with Dateline.
'I've been hosting Dateline for many years,' Holt told hosts Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin during a May 30 episode of Today, 'but long form is something I really wanted to get my teeth into.'
'It's a different set of news muscles,' he continued. 'The time just seemed to be right. You know, you hit a certain age, you start thinking, 'What's the back part of my career going to look like?''
After all, since becoming a co-anchor of the weekend edition of Today in 2003, the veteran journalist has been wrapped up in the fast-paced world of daily news.
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'I'm going to miss the crazy deadline pressure of day-to-day television,' he admitted. 'I'm going to miss that energy of the breaking news and running to the airport—and things that make me crazy, too—but also that kind of energize you at the same time.'
Assuring his viewers that he is moving on to join the ranks of the 'best storytellers in the business' over at Dateline, Holt began to reminisce on his biggest accomplishments while anchoring at NBC.
'There's certain stories that make me proud,' he shared. 'I'm really proud of what we did during the pandemic. We figured out really quickly how to get on TV again. We had to kind of reinvent the wheel.'
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.
Now, as Holt prepares to step into his new role as primary anchor for Dateline, he is looking forward to making new impacts in the world of news.
'I feel like the new kid on campus with all my study notes ready to take on,' he joked, adding, 'We've got some really important projects in the very near future.'
Holt isn't the only star who has walked away from their hit show. Keep reading to see more shocking exits…
(E!, NBC News and Today are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)
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