Heir Apparent Waiting For NBC's Lester Holt To Retire

NBC “Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt could retire next year — and his would-be successor, Tom Llamas, “waits impatiently” for his exit in what looks like a “slow motion coup d’état” at 30 Rock, according to a report.

The NY Post reports Holt, who is reportedly earning a hefty wage of around $10 million per year, has been anchoring the “Nightly News” since 2015, when he replaced Brian Williams, who was removed from his position and reassigned to MSNBC for concocting stories of coming under enemy fire while reporting from Afghanistan.

Tony Llamas

In 2021, Llamas was named senior national correspondent for NBC News as well as prime time anchor of a newscast that streams on NBC News Now. Since then, there have been rampant rumors that Llamas was hired to replace Holt, sources told The Post.

According to The Ankler newsletter, the higher-ups at NBC parent company Comcast would be happy to see Holt hang up his microphone given that Llamas, his likely eventual replacement, earns a relatively modest salary of around $2.5 million per year.

In 2021, Holt, 65, signed a four-year deal to stay at NBC News. At the time, Page Six reported that Holt insisted on getting the title of managing editor in order to stave off a perceived threat from Llamas, who had just joined the network after a stint as weekend host of ABC “World News Tonight.”

The 45-year-old Llamas is said to be close to Cesar Conde, who heads NBC’s news division. A source told Page Six in 2021 that Llamas is “clearly being groomed for a big role” and that Holt “negotiated a bigger title to stave off the threat.”