John Chancellor and David Brinkley (1970–1982) NBC Nightly News replaced
The Huntley–Brinkley Report on August 3, 1970, upon
Chet Huntley's retirement. At first,
David Brinkley,
John Chancellor, and
Frank McGee rotated duties as anchors. At least one, usually two, and very rarely all three anchored the program on a given night. Except for the few nights when one of the men solo anchored, each evening's program included one
anchor based in
New York City and one in
Washington, D.C., as had been the case on the
Huntley-Brinkley Report. Brinkley's appearances were always from Washington and McGee's were always from New York. Chancellor moved between those two cities depending on his partner for the evening. In addition to Brinkley as a holdover from the
Huntley-Brinkley Report, McGee had received praise for his anchoring or co-anchoring of space flights, and Chancellor had also received praise as McGee's co-anchor for the space missions of
Apollo 12 and
Apollo 13. With network executives perceiving the instability of this arrangement as a factor in
Nightly News losing
audience share to the
CBS Evening News, NBC discontinued the rotation arrangement, and McGee eventually replaced
Hugh Downs as host of
Today. Chancellor became the sole anchor of the program on August 9, 1971, with Brinkley providing a three-minute commentary segment, "David Brinkley's Journal", from Washington several times a week. On June 7, 1976, Brinkley returned to the anchor desk and tried the dual-anchor approach once again. Initially, Chancellor and Brinkley both reported from New York City, however Brinkley would later return to Washington. Chancellor again became sole anchor of
Nightly News on October 10, 1979, with Brinkley once again providing commentaries until he left NBC for
ABC News in 1981, where he became host of that network's new
Sunday morning interview show This Week. Despite the various changes, Chancellor was never able to break the grip that
Walter Cronkite and the
CBS Evening News had on the American news viewer, although
Nightly News was sometimes a strong second place in the evening news ratings for most of the 1970s. After resigning from the anchor desk on April 2, 1982, Chancellor remained on the program as an editorial commentator until his retirement in 1993.
Tom Brokaw (1982–2004) On April 5, 1982,
Tom Brokaw, who had been serving as anchor of
Today since 1976, joined the program and took over co-anchor duties in New York City, while
Roger Mudd became anchor in Washington. Mudd was removed from the broadcast and Brokaw became the solo anchor of
Nightly News on September 5, 1983, the same day that his ABC competitor,
Peter Jennings, became sole anchor of
World News Tonight. With Brokaw being the sole anchor, the
Nightly News was now completely based in New York City. Among other news items, he covered the
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster,
EDSA Revolution,
Loma Prieta earthquake, the
fall of the Berlin Wall, and
Hurricane Andrew. As anchor, Brokaw conducted the first one-on-one American television interviews with Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev and
Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was the only network anchor in
Berlin when the
Berlin Wall fell. Brokaw's presence slowly attracted viewers, and during the 1990s,
Nightly News battled for the viewership lead with
World News Tonight. He and
Katie Couric hosted a prime-time
newsmagazine,
Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric, that aired from 1993 to 1994 before being folded into the multi-night
Dateline NBC program. By 1997,
NBC Nightly News had solidified its first place standing in the
ratings, a spot it would retain solely for ten years. The once-dominant
CBS Evening News, anchored by
Dan Rather, had lost a substantial portion of the audience it held during the Walter Cronkite era and slid to third place (where it still remains as of 2017) in the viewership wars. before an interview on June 2, 2000 On September 11, 2001, Brokaw joined
Katie Couric and
Matt Lauer around 9:30 a.m., following the live attack on the South Tower of the
World Trade Center, and continued to anchor all day, until after midnight. Following the collapse of the second tower, Brokaw said: On May 28, 2002, Brokaw announced his retirement as anchor of
Nightly News, to take effect shortly after the
Presidential election in 2004. During this last time helming the network's presidential election coverage, NBC graphic designers created images of a giant electoral map on the ice rink at Rockefeller Plaza, and
cherry pickers tallied the electoral vote count on the façade of
30 Rockefeller Plaza (this tradition has continued with each election since then). Brokaw's final broadcast took place on December 1, 2004, ending 22 years on the
Nightly News desk and a 21-year run as the network's chief newsman, a record tenure in NBC's history.
Brian Williams (2004–2015) Brian Williams, a frequent substitute for Brokaw for
NBC Nightly News, succeeded him as the program's permanent anchor on December 2, 2004. The program held onto the #1 ratings spot among the network evening newscasts from Williams' first day, averaging about 10 million viewers each week until February 2007, when it traded places with its closest competitor
World News with Charles Gibson. However,
NBC Nightly News regained the lead a few months later; it has now been America's most-watched evening newscast for over a decade. Williams rose to new levels of popularity for his live
spot reporting during and after the
2005 hurricane season. With the transition to Williams, the show recognized its past in its opening seconds, with small photos of former anchors and sets and the voices of
John Cameron Swayze, Huntley, Brinkley, Chancellor, and Brokaw, as well as an orchestral version of the "G-E-C"
NBC Chimes serving as an intro bumper, before going into the opening headlines summary read by Williams; this opening sequence was discontinued on September 17, 2007, except for weekends and nights with substitute anchors until October 2007. On December 4, 2006,
Nightly News was presented with "limited commercial interruptions" through a sponsorship arrangement with
Philips, marking the first time in its 36-year history that the newscast experimented with reduced advertising. During Williams' tenure as main anchor of the program,
Lester Holt and
Kate Snow often substituted while he was on vacation or on assignment; other substitute anchors included
Katie Couric,
Matt Lauer,
Savannah Guthrie,
Tamron Hall,
Harry Smith,
Jenna Wolfe,
Erica Hill,
Hoda Kotb,
Natalie Morales and
Carl Quintanilla, as well as now-former NBC anchors
Ann Curry,
Campbell Brown,
David Gregory,
Amy Robach,
Peter Alexander, and
John Seigenthaler.
NBC Nightly News began broadcasting in
high definition on March 26, 2007, becoming the first of the three network evening news programs to make the transition (the
CBS Evening News began broadcasting in HD on January 7, 2008;
ABC World News Tonight began broadcasting in HD on August 25, 2008, during its coverage of the
2008 Democratic National Convention). Most news video from on-remote locations continued to be shot in
standard definition at the time, while the network's news bureaus underwent a conversion to HD, which was completed in 2009. The
Nightly News set in
Studio 3C, which had been in use since January 27, 1992, was retired on May 4, 2007. The broadcast temporarily relocated to Studio 8G on the same set as of May 8, 2007, used for the studio segments seen during the network's
Sunday Night Football broadcasts and its
pregame show, and where NBC's 2006 Congressional election coverage originated. After months of construction, Studio 3C was re-opened on October 22, 2007, with the introduction of a new set for
Nightly News; sister cable network
MSNBC's new set in Studio 3A was also inaugurated at that time. On October 24, 2011, the broadcast moved to Studio 3B, which also served as the homebase of Williams' short-lived newsmagazine for NBC,
Rock Center.
Embellishment scandal/suspension and replacement On February 4, 2015, Williams apologized on the program for having
"conflated" on numerous occasions an account that he had been aboard a
Chinook helicopter shot down by enemy fire from a
rocket-propelled grenade while covering the
Invasion of Iraq in 2003, when he was in fact aboard a helicopter that followed behind it. This came after he received criticism by U.S. soldiers for embellishing the story when a segment from the January 30, 2015, broadcast recounting the incident was posted on the program's
Facebook page. The revelation spurred negative press towards Williams, including some asking for him to be fired by NBC News, although
Paul Rieckhoff, founder of
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, stated that "persecuting [Williams] over this mistake will do little to help our veterans and service members". Amid that controversy and
questions over Williams' claims that made regarding his experiences while reporting from
New Orleans on the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, including that he contracted
dysentery from accidentally ingesting flood water, the news division decided to launch an internal investigation into the matter that would be conducted through its investigative unit. On February 7, 2015, Williams stated in a memo to NBC News staff that he would take himself "off the daily broadcast for the next several days," with Lester Holt substituting for him on the weeknight broadcasts. On February 10, 2015, Williams was suspended without pay for six months due to the scandal which arose after he came under fire for fabricating a story about his reporting on the Iraq War and Hurricane Katrina. Williams claimed to have been reporting in Iraq in 2002 when the helicopter he was traveling on was hit by an RPG and he was forced to land. He had told the story several times, including his appearances on the
Late Show with David Letterman and on
Nightly News itself only a few nights before several war veterans who had been with Williams in 2002 claimed that Williams had not been present at the time of the crash, but showed up about an hour later to report on it. Williams issued an apology, saying he had "misremembered" the story in his head and it had been a genuine accident, but many critics accused Williams of fabricating the story and called for his resignation. Williams later announced that he would be taking some time off because he had become "too much a part of the news." NBC announced that weekend anchor
Lester Holt would anchor the program in the interim.
Lester Holt (2015–2025) On June 18, 2015,
NBC News and
MSNBC chairman Andrew Lack announced that
Lester Holt would become the main anchor of
NBC Nightly News on a permanent basis effective on June 22, 2015, Holt was on a scheduled vacation on the day of the announcement, with
Today presenter
Savannah Guthrie serving as interim anchor of the broadcast that week. After his suspension ended in August,
Brian Williams was reassigned to MSNBC where he previously served as both an anchor and correspondent. Holt previously served as interim anchor of the weeknight broadcasts from August 6, 2013, to September 2, 2013, when Williams went on medical leave from NBC News in order to undergo
knee replacement surgery. With his promotion to main anchor, Holt is the first African-American solo weeknight anchor of a major network newscast.
Max Robinson was co-anchor of ABC's
World News Tonight from 1978 to 1983, and
Gwen Ifill was a co-anchor of the
PBS NewsHour from 2013 until her death in 2016. On June 27, 2016,
NBC Nightly News switched to a full 16:9 letterbox presentation, with the existing graphics package being re-positioned for the 16:9 format. On October 10, 2016, the newscast debuted an entirely new on-air look with graphics originally optimized for the full 16:9 presentation, including a new program logo replacing variations of the previous one that had been used since November 8, 1999. On July 14, 2017,
NBC Nightly News permanently moved back from Studio 3B to Studio 3C. In 2018,
NBC Nightly News launched an ongoing series of specials,
NBC Nightly Films. On August 11, 2021, it was announced that executive producer Jennifer Suozzo would be departing the program and Meghan Rafferty would be interim executive producer on August 16, 2021. On September 13, 2021,
NBC Nightly News permanently moved from Studio 3C to Studio 1A, also the home of
Today. On June 19, 2023,
NBC Nightly News underwent its first large-scale rebrand since the Brian Williams era as part of a wider rebranding of NBC as a whole; it was unveiled by NBC during an event honoring of 75 years of televised newscasts on NBC. The rebrand includes a new on-air graphics scheme intended to create fewer distractions from the content of stories, as well as a new stylized "N" emblem (reminiscent of the network's 1979–86 "Proud N" logo) that can be split apart to display headlines, and is better-suited for digital platforms. On February 24, 2025, NBC News announced Holt would be resigning from
NBC Nightly News to focus more on
Dateline NBC. NBC did not immediately name a successor, but media outlets speculated
Top Story anchor Tom Llamas and weekend anchors
José Díaz-Balart and
Hallie Jackson as potential candidates. Holt's final broadcast as anchor of
NBC Nightly News aired on May 30, 2025. Holt also appeared on
Today earlier that day to discuss his legacy and his desire to pursue
long-form journalism. At the end of the broadcast, Holt signed off saying:
Tom Llamas (2025–present) On March 5, 2025, NBC News announced
Tom Llamas as Holt's successor. Llamas previously anchored
ABC's rival newscast
World News Tonight on weekends before returning to NBC News in 2021 (Llamas was previously working with NBC from 2000 to 2014). Llamas also continues to anchor
Top Story with Tom Llamas on NBC News Now. NBC began running its promotional campaign for Llamas on May 19, 2025. Llamas debuted as anchor and managing editor of
NBC Nightly News on June 2, 2025. ==Alternate editions==