Who Is Tom Llamas? Meet Lester Holt’s ‘NBC Nightly News’ Replacement

Lester Holt said goodbye to NBC Nightly News after 10 years as the show’s host on May 30. In March, Tom Llamas was officially confirmed as Holt’s replacement, and he’ll take his seat behind the news desk on Monday, June 2.

“Anchoring NBC Nightly News is a profound honor and one that carries tremendous responsibility,” Llamas previously said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the world class journalists at Nightly News and Top Story to bring viewers the most important stories every night. Lester Holt is a great man and one of the most trusted broadcasters of our time. Just like Lester, I promise to be devoted to our viewers and dedicated to the truth.”

Llamas filled in for Holt during two weekday broadcasts in April, and NBC saw a bump in ratings against ABC World News Tonight With David Muir (although Muir was not anchoring the show that night). The real test will begin as Llamas officially begins his tenure as head of the weeknight broadcast.

Where has Tom Llamas worked?

Llamas developed a passion for journalism as a child because his parents instilled a love of current events in him. He was just 15 years old when he started working in his first newsroom.

“I had an internship at Telemundo in Miami. Working for free, but it was so exciting. I couldn’t even drive!” he told local Florida outlet WESH. “But I was out there covering crime scenes and interviewing local officials. That was my summer break. But that’s really where I caught the bug.”

After graduating from Loyola University, he began working for NBC News Specials Unit in 2000, then moved over to MSNBC, where he mostly covered politics. In 2005, Llamas began working for NBC’s affiliate WTVJ in Miami, then moved to New York where he became a general assignment reporter and anchor at WNBC and NBC News in 2009.

Llamas moved over to ABC News in 2014. He was the network’s New York-based correspondent and landed the Sunday anchor spot of ABC World News Tonight in 2015. By January 2017, he was the sole weekend anchor, but he left the network in 2021, returning to NBC News. He began anchoring the primetime newscast Top Story With Tom Llamas on NBC News Now in May 2021 and will continue doing so amid his new gig on Nightly News.

Where is Tom Llamas from?

Llamas grew up in Miami but his parents are both of Cuban descent. Although they grew up in different parts of the country, their families both fled amid Fidel Castro’s regime and met in the United States as teenagers.

“Right after Castro took over, my mom got out. My dad’s family left a few years later. They both came to this country with nothing and they worked their way up,” Llamas wrote in a 2021 essay. “They were happy to be in a country where they had freedom of religion and freedom of speech and all of these things that make the United States a very unique and special place. They met in high school in Miami.”

Llamas eventually moved to New York City to pursue his journalism career and now lives in Purchase, New York, with his family.

Is Tom Llamas married?

Llamas married his wife Jennifer in June 2006. She is a producer at MSNBC, and it’s rumored that the two met while attending Loyola University together. However, conflicting reports say they didn’t meet until they were both working at MSNBC in the early 2000s.