NBC Nightly News is a program that has traditionally thrived on stability. 2025 has been a year of change for the nightly newscast. Longtime anchor Lester Holt departed the program, being replaced by Tom Llamas. That also led to a new Executive Producer — Matt Frucci — entering the picture.
The transition has been an incredibly smooth one, however. Lester Holt routinely ranked as the “most trusted man in news”, according to polling. So, when Tom Llamas was set to take over, there were certainly worries about what the falloff might be.
The network had recently seen what an anchor change can do to the ratings. In early 2025, Norah O’Donnell exited the CBS Evening News anchor chair, leaving behind an average of roughly 5 million nightly viewers. After her departure, the ratings slid. And continued to slide for months, falling to where the newscast struggled to average 3.5 million viewers at times.
But those worries for NBC News largely came and went. In the immediate aftermath of Holt’s departure, NBC Nightly News retained almost all of its audience in the process, seeing just a 5% decline in the Llamas’ first week, before bouncing back to equalling and in some weeks surpassing what Lester Holt had previously set.
That’s something Frucci is proud of.
“Obviously, Lester is really, really respected inside and outside of the network,” Frucci said. “The audience loves him. The staff loves him. He really set the standard. I think we succeeded because Tom is trying to meet that standard each and every night. We’re not trying to vary from what Lester was doing. We’re not trying to shake up the format in any sort of dramatic way. We are obviously putting Tom’s stamp on the broadcast where we can, but it’s not going to be a drastic change for someone who is watching eight months ago to someone who’s watching right now.
“It’s a legacy broadcast that exists in and of itself, and our job is to be the shepherds of it for the period that we have control over it, and not to dramatically shake it up or change it,” continued Frucci. “I think the audience recognizes that. They recognize that Tom, like Lester, cares deeply about the people he’s covering and the stories we’re telling. And it’s a great respect for the audience. So they stuck around with us, and we’re deeply grateful that they did.”
Frucci wasn’t walking in blind. Before taking the reins of the weekday broadcast, he spent six years running the weekend edition of Nightly News, and later executive-produced Top Story with Tom Llamas, NBC News’ flagship streaming newscast. That meant stepping into the Nightly control room full-time wasn’t a shock to the system.
“I had a very good feel for it,” Frucci said. “Before I took over both Top Story and weekday Nightly News, I was also just the EP of Top Story, so I got a good handle on Tom and how he operates. It wasn’t like I was coming in cold.”
Still, there’s no “easing in” when you’re in the big chair.
“In television news, there is no not hitting the ground running,” Frucci said. “There is no training. It’s just, you’ve got to get in and do it on day one. Your job is to program a broadcast and get it on air.”
In his view, what made those first days manageable was familiarity — with the newsroom, with the format, and most importantly, with Llamas.
“Understanding our strengths, knowing Tom and what he’s so good at, what he wants to achieve with the broadcast, really gave me a leg up,” he said.
Tom Llamas is deeply involved with Frucci in creating NBC Nightly News each weeknight. And Frucci believes that’s part of the reason the program has seen the immediate success it’s had.
“His name is on the broadcast,” said Frucci. “He has a real distinct vision for what he wants the show to be. So my job is to really work with Tom, to work with the staff, to make sure that we are bringing Tom’s vision, which really is one of serving the audience.
“It’s really about ‘How do we make sure this broadcast is giving the audience exactly what they need, day in and day out?’ It’s my job to make that happen. So I work with him, I work with the staff, I work with our bureaus and reporters across the world to bring that vision to life.”
It’s not unheard of for a news anchor to be deeply involved with the editorial and decision-making when it comes to the nightly newscast. But Frucci admits Tom Llamas is more involved than others.
“I can tell you Tom is really, really passionate about the work he does,” the NBC Nightly News Executive Producer said. “He cares deeply about the stories he covers. He really wants to make sure we get it right each and every night. And he’s involved in every decision we make. He really wants to make sure we are putting on the best broadcast possible for our audience. He really wants to make sure that we’re putting on the best show each and every night.”
And while the newscast still trails behind ABC News’ World News Tonight with David Muir, Nightly News has closed the gap inside the key demographic between the two to its closest margin in six years. That momentum is paramount, as 2026 will be a year of opportunities for the NBC News program.
As the calendar flips, the network will be the television home of Super Bowl LX on Sunday, February 8th. That comes two days after the Opening Ceremonies of the 2026 Winter Olympics held in Milan, Italy, which will stretch until the final days of February.
Furthermore, NBC also is now one of the broadcast partners of the NBA, broadcasting the league’s All-Star Game on February 15th, in addition to recently securing the rights to MLB’s Sunday Night Baseball package. Plus, the mid-term elections of Donald Trump’s second administration are slated for November 2026.
So, there will be plenty of chances for NBC Nightly News and Tom Llamas to earn new viewers.
“We’re going to go on the road,” Frucci said of the newscast’s 2026 plans. “We obviously very much like to take the broadcast on the road when there are big breaking news events. Tom has been to Israel already. He’s been down to the flooding in Texas. He was in Alaska when there was that Putin summit there as well. We are not shy about taking the show on the road when it matters for big news events. And we’re not going to be shy about it either when there are big cultural events that are dominating as well.”
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
Frucci uses a lot of words to say little. Tom really, really, really cares. Tom is really, really involved. We are not making big changes but we are putting Tom’s stamp on it. Which is what? That he really, really cares. He really does.
same old tired script. Just a new camera jockey