With embattled anchor Brian Williams taking a leave of absence, millions are tuning in to the “NBC Nightly News” and seeing Lester Holt in the anchor chair.
For Holt, the circumstances are new and treacherous, but the job itself is not. He’s been filling in for Williams for almost a decade and he’s a friendly face in the halls of NBC News.
The 55-year-old newsman has been a co-host of the weekend editions of “Today” since 2003. He added weekend “Nightly News” to his duties in 2007, so he works pretty much nonstop Saturday and Sunday.
He also hosts the newsmagazine “Dateline.”
He joined NBC in 2000 after two decades in local TV. He was one of the main anchors on NBC’s cable news channel, MSNBC, during the start of the Iraq War in 2003.
“Lester is always pitch perfect in the anchor chair,” said Mark Effron, a former vice president of daytime at MSNBC. “You can’t throw him a curve he can’t take.”
Read more at CNN.
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