New anchor Tom Llamas on his vision for Nightly News and his memories of NBC4

Yahoo

2 days ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Before Tom Llamas took over as anchor of NBC Nightly News, he took a visit to NBC4.
Llamas made Columbus one of several stops in the weeks after he was announced to replace Lester Holt, who stepped down Friday after nearly 10 years to focus on his role with Dateline. That leaves Llamas the face of a program that viewers have trusted across six decades.
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'It's incredible, and it's an honor,' Llamas said. 'Lester's always been a friend and mentor to me, and he's built such a trust with the viewers. I mean, his brand is America's most trusted news anchor. Can you imagine anything better to have in our business than to be known by that?
'And I hope to do the same.'
Llamas spent a day at the NBC4 studios in early May. He spoke with NBC4 Today Anchor Matt Barnes about their shared passion in covering the Olympic Games, and he exchanged industry stories with Jennifer Bullock and Jerod Smalley, anchors of First at 4 and NBC4 at 5.
'It was great to talk with Tom about attending the Olympics,' Barnes said. 'He has an intimate knowledge of what it means to tell the stories of athletes that have given everything they have to reach the pinnacle of their career.'
Llamas toured the Mid-Ohio Farm at NBC4, a community garden on the station grounds, on a rainy, muddy afternoon. And he spoke in depth on his vision for his new show, about what's next for his current streaming show, and on what he sees for the future of journalism in America with Colleen Marshall and Kerry Charles, who anchor the NBC4 newscasts that bookend Nightly News.
'I'm thrilled to hear that Tom and his team plan to spotlight the incredible work of local journalists from all parts of the country,' Charles said.
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But when Llamas got to NBC4, he was on a personal mission. He had been there before, and he wanted to know if the newsroom looked the way he'd remembered. He stopped long enough to shake hands with Matthew Herchick, who was heading to the studio to anchor NBC4 News at Midday — 'Hi, I'm Tom,' he said — before strolling through a familiar-looking newsroom for the first time in decades.
'It was the 2004 [presidential] campaign, Battleground Ohio,' Llamas said. 'I drove all over the state. I remember driving from Columbus to Cleveland and seeing all the red barns, and it was so beautiful, like a slice of Americana.'
Llamas was on the MSNBC team then, reporting on the presidential aspirations of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who was part of a crowded field for the Democratic nomination. Because Sharpton was so good at challenging the establishment, Llamas said he found himself featured on cable more than those assigned to other candidates, and so his status rose.
He lived in an apartment in Columbus' West Scioto neighborhood, using NBC4 as an occasional base of operations, and he got around town enough that memories of certain places persisted.
'It was a restaurant that was so good I was there almost every day, a barbecue restaurant called Hoggy's. Yeah, I really enjoyed it a lot,' he said of the spot on Bethel Road. 'And I thought the Short North, it was like it reminded me of SoHo. It was like a very cool, hip area.'
He's lived in Ohio and New York, but Llamas, 45, is a Florida native.
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Born in Miami to Cuban immigrants who escaped the island's Communist regime as political refugees, he describes his parents as news junkies. His journalism career began at a young age, as an intern for a Telemundo station.
'I started when I was 15, working in local newsrooms. I worked my way up. I've held pretty much every job in the newsroom, from answering telephones to working on graphics to reporting on campaigns, investigative reporting as well,' he said.
He earned his journalism degree from Loyola University in New Orleans in 2001. Four years later, after his time with MSNBC, he joined the NBC affiliate in Miami as a reporter, and then in 2009, he went to its affiliate in New York, where he gained experience as an anchor.
In 2014, ABC News offered him the chance to be a New York correspondent and a substitute anchor on World News Tonight, and he eventually became the weekend anchor. His coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign led Donald Trump to call Llamas a 'sleaze' to his face after Trump overstated how much a fundraiser had brought in and Llamas questioned him on it. It was a key moment for someone who lives by two career mantras: without fear or favor, and tough but fair.
'I learned how he wants to be covered and how you cover him, and just know that if you're going to ask a tough question, you may get something in return,' Llamas said. 'It may not be an answer, but that just comes with the territory and it's fine. Like I said, you've got to be tough but fair, and if you are, I think he knows that.'
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Llamas has continued covering Trump and has since interviewed most members of the president's immediate family, including joining First Lady Melania Trump on a 2018 trip to Africa.
When Llamas returned to NBC News in 2021 as a national correspondent, he launched a daily streaming program called Top Story. Among the major stories he has covered recently are the New Orleans terror attack, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the death of Pope Francis. Even as the anchor of Nightly News, Llamas is continuing with Top Story.
'I'm doing 90 minutes straight because I want to make sure that we have the viewers that have traditionally turned to Nightly News, but also those viewers who maybe have cut the cord,' he said.
Away from work, Llamas and his wife, Jennifer, live with their three children — two daughters and a son — in suburban Westchester County, New York, about 40 minutes north of Rockefeller Center. His days usually start by 6 a.m. — 'I'm fueled on Cuban coffee,' he said — over 12 hours before Nightly News airs.
'There is a lot to admire in Tom, ' Marshall said. 'He has reported on the local and national level, but I especially like his stint as a senior national correspondent and that we share a love of politics.'
And just as Llamas understands the value of network news, he said he knows the value of local news like NBC4, too.
'I worked my way up from local stations, and I know how important local stations like our stations in Columbus and across the country are,' he said. 'You guys are our central nervous system.'
Llamas can be seen weeknights on NBC Nightly News at 6:30 p.m.
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