Lester Holt Will Not Exit NBC News Completely After Stepping Down From ‘NBC Nightly News’

Lester Holt is trading his nightly anchor desk for crime scenes and in-depth investigations in a major professional pivot. The respected newscaster, who has guided NBC Nightly News through numerous national events since 2015, will deliver his final evening bulletin on May 30.

Rather than retiring completely, the 66-year-old broadcaster will redirect his journalistic expertise toward more substantive contributions to Dateline, the long-running newsmagazine that has become increasingly vital to NBC‘s revenue stream in recent years. While Holt already maintains a presence on the program primarily as its host, his new arrangement will involve deeper involvement in creating the show’s content, as he explained during a recent conversation at NBC’s New York headquarters. “The big buy-in was to be able to do more of the hours,” Holt revealed to Variety, noting his previous experience with immersive reporting for the program, including spending “two nights in prison for a ‘Dateline’” and covering diverse topics beyond the show’s crime-centered reputation.

This professional transition follows extensive personal deliberation rather than a sudden decision, Holt disclosed. “It wasn’t like one moment of epiphany,” he told the outlet. “I never saw myself doing this job forever.” Still, he emphasized his continued passion for journalism, stating, “I decided that I needed to come off the ‘Nightly’ gig, but I still had gas in the tank.”

The repositioning represents a strategic gamble on a format that commands intense viewer loyalty and has expanded beyond traditional broadcasting into podcasts, scripted adaptations, and streaming platforms. Holt expressed enthusiasm about exploring “some different news muscles” through the program’s more expansive storytelling approach. “We’re still doing journalism, but these are hour and two-hour shows we’re doing. Some of the stories you’ll see me doing will be months in the making,” he explained to Variety.

His departure from Nightly News follows a notably unconventional path to the anchor chair. Holt assumed the position in 2015 amid organizational upheaval following predecessor Brian Williams’ removal. “I don’t want to say it was a scary time, but it was an unsettling time,” Holt reflected to Variety. “No one wants to necessarily get a job, you know, on the back of a crisis, if you want to call it that. But it was what it was.”

Throughout his anchorship, Holt incorporated thoughtful innovations within the traditionally conservative evening news format, including end-of-broadcast commentaries during particularly challenging national moments—from pandemic surges to mass shootings—and the creation of a children’s edition of the program that continues on YouTube. Holt also conducted a memorable 2017 interview with then-President Trump that yielded noteworthy admissions regarding the firing of FBI Director James Comey.

Despite shifting to Dateline, Holt remains optimistic about the continued relevance of evening newscasts in an era of fragmented media consumption. “I always smile when people, even today, you know, predict the death of the format,” he told Variety. “I do think that there is value in this tradition. And, you know, what is it, 15 to 18 million people kind of validate that, watching the three major newscasts every night.”

Looking ahead, Holt identifies audience discovery as the industry’s primary challenge. “Our biggest challenge, really, is being where viewers are going to be—not where they are today—where they’re going to be in two weeks, in a month from now,” he remarked to the publication, adding his conviction that “there’s always going to be an audience for a fact-based, tell-it-like-it-is, smart-analysis kind of a broadcast.”