Caribbean Roots Journalist Lester Holt Calls Its A Day At “NBC Nightly News”

News Americas, New York, NY, February 24, 2025: Veteran Caribbean roots journalist Lester Holt, who has anchored and served as managing editor of NBC Nightly News for the past decade, announced Monday that he will be stepping down from the broadcast at the beginning of the summer.

Holt, whose maternal roots trace back to Jamaica, will continue his full-time role at Dateline, where he has been the principal anchor for nearly 15 years, according to a memo shared with NBC News staff. The network has not yet named his successor.

Holt took over as Nightly News anchor in June 2015 after spending eight years helming the weekend editions of the program and co-anchoring Weekend TODAY for 12 years. He has also served as principal anchor of Dateline since September 2011.

“A smile comes to my face when I think that with Nightly News and Dateline, I have now anchored two of the most successful and iconic television news programs in broadcast history,” Holt wrote in a message to his colleagues. “As a 20-year-old radio reporter on the police beat chasing breaking news around San Francisco, I could never have imagined my career path would unfold in the way it has. What an amazing ride.”

Over the past decade, Holt has covered some of the most defining events of the era, including the political rise of Donald Trump, the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the ongoing war in Gaza. Recently, he co-anchored NBC’s election night coverage, traveled to Iran for an exclusive interview with President Masoud Pezeshkian, and led a Dateline special on the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

His interviews with world leaders—including Trump, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy—have frequently made headlines. Holt has also traveled extensively to cover natural disasters, mass shootings, and other major news events.

Holt’s Caribbean heritage comes from his maternal grandmother, May, an Afro-Jamaican woman born in Manchester Parish, Jamaica, who was raised in Harlem, New York. His maternal grandfather, Canute DeRozario, was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, to an Indian father from Calcutta and an English-born White Jamaican mother.

Holt’s introduction to broadcasting came from his older brother, a disc jockey in Anchorage, Alaska. During his college years, Holt worked as a disc jockey at a country and western radio station before embarking on a journalism career that has made him one of the most respected news anchors of his generation.