Tom Llamas marks first year leading NBC Nightly News
The NBC anchor told Fortune that persistence, self-review and asking for opportunities shaped his rise from a teenage internship to a top news job.
By Hana Yoshida · Markets Reporter
3 min read
Tom Llamas has completed his first year as anchor of NBC Nightly News, a role that puts him at the center of one of the country’s best-known evening broadcasts. Fortune reported that his rise from a teenage newsroom intern to NBC’s lead anchor also reflects the pressure on traditional TV news to hold viewers as audiences split across broadcast, streaming and digital platforms.
Llamas, 46, succeeded Lester Holt in 2025, according to Fortune. He told the magazine he does not view the job as a career endpoint and said he keeps looking for ways to improve the broadcast and his own performance.
“I’m a firm believer that if you’re not growing, you’re dying,” Llamas told Fortune. He said he reviews the show with questions about how he can get better, how the program can improve and how its stories can be stronger.
A broader job than the evening broadcast
Fortune reported that Llamas’ first year has included reporting trips beyond NBC’s New York base, including Beijing, Jerusalem and Miami, where he grew up. He has also interviewed President Donald Trump and soccer star Lionel Messi, according to Fortune.
The program remains in a competitive evening news race. Fortune reported that NBC Nightly News usually draws a little more than 6 million viewers, while ABC draws about 7 million and CBS about 3.8 million.
Llamas’ duties also extend past the half-hour network newscast, Fortune reported. After the evening broadcast, he moves to another hour on NBC News Now, the company’s streaming news channel.
He told Fortune that he loves the work but is “100% busier” than he was a year earlier. The schedule has changed how he thinks about family time, he said, with a sharper separation between work and home.
From Miami intern to network anchor
Llamas is the son of Cuban refugees and grew up in Miami in a household where newspapers and TV news were part of daily life, Fortune reported. At 15, he took an unpaid internship at a local Telemundo station and said the experience helped convince him that he wanted a career in news.
He graduated from Loyola University New Orleans in 2001 with studies in broadcast journalism, drama and speech, according to Fortune. He then worked in local television in Miami before moving to New York in 2009 to join NBC’s local station.
Fortune reported that Llamas left for ABC News in 2014, where he became a correspondent and later a weekend anchor of World News Tonight. He returned to NBC in 2021 and became anchor of NBC Nightly News in 2025.
Llamas told Fortune he does not credit his career mainly to being the most talented person in a room. He pointed instead to preparation, persistence, relationships and asking directly for opportunities.
“If you don’t ask, you don’t get,” Llamas told Fortune. His advice to younger workers, including Gen Z employees, is to work hard, build mentors and understand how colleagues see their work.
Fortune reported that Llamas also measures success at home. He said his personal test is whether he has been a good father and husband, even as he competes in a demanding national news job.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.