JUST IN: Longtime NBC News Anchor Demoted From Prime Time

Fresh off the obliteration of Joy Reid’s show, NBC executives are giving the axe to another prominent TV personality, a sign that the heady times of evening news are finally dead.

In a statement, NBC News’ Executive Vice President of Programming Janelle Rodriguez confirmed that “Nightly News,” the network’s 6:30 p.m. EST program, will lose its host Lester Holt after nearly a decade at the desk. Holt has been a reliable presence in NBC’s evening lineup since he took over from Brian Williams in 2015.

No replacement has been announced, according to Rodriguez.

“[Holt] will continue at the helm of Nightly until early summer, Rodriguez said. Instead, Holy will devote “his energy to the rapidly-expanding powerhouse that is Dateline.”

The 65-year-old newsman wrote his own letter to colleagues on Monday morning, saying his time manning “Nightly News” has been an “amazing ride,” according to a copy obtained by the Daily Mail.

Holt’s sign-off comes almost a month after Chuck Todd, who regularly hosted “Meet the Press” before stepping back in 2023, declared he would be leaving NBC for good now that his contract has expired. In a memo to staff, Todd warned NBC staff to do better when it comes to winning back the trust of viewers who have fled the network.

“The media has a lot of work to do to win back the trust of viewers/listeners/readers and I’m convinced the best place to start is from the bottom up. At my core, I’m an entrepreneur — I spent my first 15 years professionally working for the company that started the political newsletter craze that dominates today. And this is a ripe moment,” he said.

Holt had his own run-ins with the truth, such as when he skipped over the worst job report in years shortly before the 2024 election. During the Republican presidential primary, he was fact-checked by Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) when he alleged that reapproving the Keystone Pipeline would not lead to an immediate reduction in gas prices.

In one of the season’s first debates, Vivek Ramaswamy called out Holt and fellow moderator Kristen Welker for failing to report accurately on the baseless Trump-Russia collusion scandal.

“I’m going to use this time to – because this is actually about you in the media and the corrupt media establishment – ask you about the Trump-Russia collusion hoax that you pushed on this network for years. Was that real or was that Hillary Clinton made up disinformation? Answer the question,” he said to Welker and Holt, drawing loud applause from the audience.

Although his airtime will be pulled back, Holt will still be a host at “Dateline,” affording him a perch where he will watch NBC work to unwind itself from the less popular and lucrative asset known as MSNBC. Producers on Sunday announced that longtime host Joy Reid would lose her show, one of the many changes being implemented as parent company Comcast works to divest MSNBC into its own standalone company no longer reliant on NBC’s revenue.