In a TV and media landscape revolutionized by technology, network evening newscasts are somewhat defined by their lack of evolution. The dramas, comedies and variety shows of today look little like those of the 1950s and ’60s, but the nightly news programs still beam their anchors into the living rooms of America each night — providing a digest of the day that was, and perhaps a peek into the day ahead. But that doesn’t mean the format isn’t immune to adaptation. For Lester Holt, anchor of NBC Nightly News (the network is set to celebrate 75 years of an evening newscast this year), that means spending time on deeper dives into a topic (like with a recent visit to Florida, eight months after Hurricane Ian) or offering commentary after a day of difficult news. “As a friend once told me, ‘I don’t watch to know the news, I watch to get your take on the news,’ ” Holt says. “We have to fill in the blanks every day of what you didn’t get in that text news alert.”
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Speaking in his office overlooking New York’s Rockefeller Plaza, the Nightly News anchor discussed the perpetual American election cycle, the value in saying “I don’t know” and how he ended up playing in a rock band.
You began closing some episodes with essays in 2019 after shootings rocked towns in Texas, California and Ohio in the same week. Tell me about the choice to stay with that.
The news was heavy. We were giving you 30 minutes of really tough news. I decided then to take that risk of stepping out into — I hate to use the word “commentary,” but I guess that’s a fair characterization. It’s a moment, 30 or 40 seconds, just to capture where we are. I’ve tried not to cross a line into out-and-out opinion, but I think I’ve earned the right or the privilege to be able to take those moments and say, “This is where we are as a country. This is what we’re facing. You’re not alone if you’re mad about this, or sad.”
That’s got to be a difficult line to walk though, right?
There’s a world of opinion-oriented programming out there. You’ve got plenty of choices, if that’s what you want. I know from talking to people that they respect that this broadcast doesn’t delve off into opinion. We do analysis of stories based on our depth of knowledge. We know when the story demands that kind of touch.
During your commencement speech at Villanova on May 19, you discussed the value in saying, “I don’t know.” When people think of news anchors, they think of somebody with all the answers. What does “I don’t know” mean to you?
We’re all so quick to have an opinion on stuff. What I was trying to tell the graduates is that it’s OK not to have one. It’s OK not to respond right away. That’s how we get into this “Well, he said,” “Well, I heard,” or “It’s posted …” Just apply the basic rules of journalism as part of our daily conversational hygiene.
The 2024 election is just beginning right now. Do you have a sense yet of how you’d like to cover it?
We used to think of this as the bye year, but there is no time off. We are into it. I always think the challenge in covering any election is to try to get the candidates to reveal themselves. And that’s really the most important thing. No matter what anyone else is saying around them, there will be those moments along the campaign trail that they’re going to define themselves. We want to be there to capture those moments.
I read that the Republican National Committee was impressed by your pitch to moderate a debate. What would a Lester Holt-led debate look like?
I probably wouldn’t reinvent the wheel. It’s a big crowd on that stage, and you really are wanting them to reveal themselves. You have to let them kind of suss each other out and stake their game. But you know, those are always potential turning points in the direction of these elections.
When you want to give your brain a break, what do you watch or listen to or read to escape the news?
Techno-thriller-type books, the whole Tom Clancy genre. You can’t separate me from a good submarine novel.
It’s funny that you mention techno-thrillers while we’re reading headlines about artificial intelligence. It’s escapism, but it has become increasingly real.
I probably shouldn’t say this, but I’ll say it. I’ve met people along the way who say, “I don’t follow the news. It’s too depressing.” I used to judge them, like, “How can you not watch the news?” And then the world gets very dark sometimes, and I find myself reflecting. What would life be like if you didn’t know some of this stuff? And it does kind of inform how we produce the show. It’s not my job to be reassuring necessarily, but I do have an important platform in how we present these stories and balance that half-hour and create an arc and not pummel people with a half-hour of a sometimes frightening, sometimes stressful, often divided world. We’re not immune to this stuff, and we’ve had some rough days.
You also anchor Dateline. What about that genre appeals to you?
Crime reporting, so many people have an appetite for that. And Dateline does it really well. At the same time, we’re not all true crime. I went to Louisiana State Prison in Angola, Louisiana, and spent a couple of nights there really trying to get inside the idea of mass incarceration. That’s something I appreciate, to take an hour and spend it on a given topic.
A few years ago Dateline had a 25th-anniversary party, and I remember walking in behind some fans. They saw you, and it was like what must happen when a rock star walks into the room.
Sometimes people recognize me and they’ll go, “Oh, we love you on Dateline!’ I’m like, “You know I do a show every night …”
Your band The Rough Cuts, which includes a lot of Dateline video editors, performed that night as well. How did that start?
We’re still not sure. I think it was a holiday gathering and a bunch of us decided to sing Christmas carols. I play the bass and someone said, “I play the drums,” and suddenly it was like, “We’ve got a singer. We could do this.”
Do news fans show up when they catch wind of a performance?
We perform at a place called Hill Country, and they’ll post when we’re going to be there. So we’ll get fans who come by there — including people who just stopped by and didn’t understand who this band was. They’re always surprised to see me out there.
Interview edited for length and clarity.
This story first appeared in the June 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
