“Please take care of yourself, and each other. Good night.”

This sign off will be something we will need to remind ourselves as viewers of NBC’s Nightly News, as longtime host Lester Holt will no longer be saying them to us. After 10 years with NBC’s Nightly News and Dateline NBC, Holt has announced that he will be stepping away from his role as host and moving to Dateline full time.

According to an NBC article released on Mar 5, Tom Llamas, a senior national correspondent for NBC News and host of “Top Story” with Tom Llamas, will replace Holt on NBC Nightly News. Llamas has been with NBC for over 20 years and seems to be welcomed with open arms into the new host position. 

Aside from Holt, a few other other anchors, one being Joy Reid, announced that they too would be stepping away. According to People Magazine’s article, “Why Are Lester Holt & Other Anchors Leaving Their Shows? All About Their Exits” MSNBC President Rebecca Kulter has formed a new programming lineup in order to boost viewer ratings. MSNBC is said to have no connection with NBC News after Kulter’s programming switch up takes place. Many people are asking is Kulter firing these hosts?

An article from Yahoo! News, “Lester Holt Didn’t Get Fired From NBC Nightly News: Here’s What Happened” addresses these rumors and shuts them down by giving their an idea of the real reason behind the end to these shows.

I don’t think that Holt or Reid were fired. However, I do find it interesting that both announcements were made the same day and both were under the new president inKulter. There is no information on Kulter’s relationship with any of the show hosts, but some assume it isn’t a close one. Kulter’s plan to change the roots of NBC and separate it from NBC News could have simply just made Holt realize that what he built at NBC Nightly News was coming to an end and that he was more interested in working with “Dateline” full time and his colleagues there. 

According to a PBS article, “NBC’s Lester Holt to step down as ‘Nightly News’ anchor after a decade” other hosts such as Nora O’Donnell with CBS Evening News” and Hoda Kotb on “The Today Show” have also stepped down from their shows. Most of these hosts have been around for a while and have become household names within their companies, so stepping down and looking at other paths isn’t the worst idea.

For the last time, “please take care of yourself, and each other. Good night.”