Tom Llamas says the nicest things — unless you happen to be a senior executive at ABC or CBS.
In recent weeks, audiences tuning into NBC’s “NBC Nightly News,” which Llamas has been anchoring since June, may have heard him reach out with a personal greeting: “And before we go tonight, a number of new viewers have found us in the past couple weeks, and we want to thank them for joining us. Tonight, and always, we’re here for you.”
Imagine, a direct on-air shout out from the anchor of one of the nation’s evening news programs!
To staffers at ABC News and CBS News, however, the words did not sound heartwarming at all. Llamas uttered the remarks while ABC’s “World News Tonight” was blocked from appearing on Google’s YouTube TV over a carriage dispute and as CBS News continued to grapple with a dual-anchor format on “CBS Evening News” that has spurred some viewers to seek their fix of evening headlines elsewhere.
With ad dollars for news growing more scarce, NBCUniversal is betting on Llamas to woo younger audiences to “Nightly,” and that’s not all. The company has also tapped him to boost interest in NBC News Now, a live-streaming news service that has become a pivotal part of its overarching digital strategy. Once “Nightly” ends, Llamas pivots immediately to “Top Story,” an an hour-long streaming program that starts within seconds of of his farewell to linear viewers. He is the only one of TVs current evening anchors to take part in such an arrangement (CBS News recently canceled a similar assignment for “CBS Evening News” anchor John Dickerson).
NBC has been encouraged in recent months by a handful of “Nightly” wins against “World News Tonight” among viewers between 25 and 54, the “demo” most coveted by advertisers in news programming. And a handful of NBC affiliates, including WLWT in Cincinnati, KSL in Salt Lake City and KARE in Minneapolis, have come to dominate that demo in their respective markets since Llamas took the reins of the show from his predecessor, Lester Holt.
Llamas tells viewers ‘We’re here for you” every evening (not always preceded by outreach to those who may be sampling due to unusual circumstances). He doesn’t do it lightly. He considers the news to be one of those elements people need to keep their lives in working order. “I don’t think that we’re any different than a plumber, a dentist, or the guy who installed your cable or your Wi-Fi. We’re there to provide a service,” says Llamas during a recent conversation in his office at NBC News’ headquarters at New York’s Rockefeller Plaza. “We get to go to very interesting places and speak with interesting people, but at the end of the day, we’re there to do a job, to give people important information and help them make decisions.”
“NBC Nightly News” isn’t beating “World News Tonight,” and perhaps it never will. ABC News’ David Muir has become almost unassailable behind the desk, and season to date as of November 27, presides over an evening-news program that has nearly 1.6 million more viewers than “Nightly,” and 94,000 more in the crucial demo. The show’s viewership solidified anew after Disney’s haggle with YouTube TV settled.
At the same time, there is still institutional memory at NBC News of the times when Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams owned the evenings. NBC News executives have been encouraged by Llamas’ ability to retain “demo” viewers during the current TV season, and see a chance to try and peel away some of ABC’s audience, including nights when “Monday Night Football” or other sports telecasts take “World News” off the schedule in certain parts of the country, or during surprising developments, such as Disney’s recent battle with YouTube.
Indeed, Llamas is just the latest participant in a decades-old feud between Disney and Comcast, NBC News’ parent. The skirmish began in earnest in 2004, when Comcast made an unsolicited bid to buy Disney during Michael Eisner’s tenure as CEO that was ultimately rejected. The fight continued in 2018 when Comcast tried to wrest assets once owned by the former 21st Century Fox after Disney had an accepted offer in place. In the interim between corporate maneuvers, the battle typically manifests itself in a clash between ABC’s and NBC’s news divisions for consumer attention.
Both networks need viewership. Ad dollars earmarked for the three broadcast network evening-news programs have dipped 6% between 2020 and 2024, according to Guideline, a tracker of ad spending. In 2020, the three programs won $545.6 million, but by 2024, commanded $514.1 million. “World News Tonight” won the lion’s share of Madison Avenue’s interest, luring $235.8 million in 2024, compared with $153.1 million for “Nightly:” during the same period. Guideline projects all three shows will cede ad dollars in 2025.
“Evening news is at a crossroads. Shifts in how people are consuming the news, changes in on-air talent and the current political environment have meant both a decline in ratings plus advertisers skittish on appearing next to hard news,” says Sean Wright, Guideline’s chief insights and analytics officer. “That combo has seen news shows across the board see significant declines in ad revenue this year.”
What makes the news clash more interesting this time around is the fact that Llamas was previously an ABC News mainstay. He was widely seen as heir apparent to Muir, though the six-year age difference between both men meant Llamas might wait all his career for a crack at the lead anchor title and never get it. Now he has injected some of ABC News’ kinetic sensibility into “Nightly,” which both Llamas and his executive producer, Matt Frucci, acknowledge has increased its story count during their early tenure.
“I think we’ve picked up the pace of the show a little bit,” says Llamas, fully cognizant of the new digital behaviors exhibited by younger viewers. “We are competing with the phone. We are competing with a lot of other news outlets out there.” He still welcomes in-depth storytelling. “We’re not afraid to double down on an investigation,” he says. “If somebody has a great piece that’s three minutes, four minutes, we’re not afraid to put that in the first block, which a lot of people are moving away from. We’re not going to move away from that.” The team will also rush, he says, to get more late-breaking news into the telecast.
The duo has made other tweaks. There is a final segment called “There’s Good News Tonight” that tries to leave things on an optimistic note. Frucci originated the concept on weekends before moving over to work with Llamas during the week. Llamas has injected some spirit into the mix with a new franchise, “The Cost of Denial,” that examines why people get turned down for insurance. “What I was seeing over the last few years in reporting, and just talking to friends and family, was people were having issues with their insurance companies, whether it be health insurance or housing insurance. I kept hearing these stories over and over again,” says Llamas. “I come from local news. And so, in local news, a lot of it is trying to get results for your viewers. And for me, the core was we work for the viewer. And if the viewers are bosses, what are we doing for them? How can we get results for them? And I thought this was a good sort of franchise to start with. And it’s grown into something. I didn’t think it would catch on this quickly.”
Such thinking may help viewers consider the evening news in a different way, suggests Janelle Rodriguez, NBC News’ executive vice president of programming. Llamas had an idea of “servicing the viewers,” she says. “How are we, helping people out? How are we making a difference? And I think that is really part of what makes him stand out.”
Llamas is polished on camera, even though challenges rise constantly behind the scenes. On one recent Monday evening, with less than three minutes to go before the “Nightly” telecast started, producers wanted him to redo some of the headlines he read during the opening of the show. One of the big stories of the night was a look at tornadoes causing damage in Texas. The problem? The news had broken late in the day, and producers didn’t want to overplay details of a group of people hunkered down in a home as the storms drew closer. So Llamas quickly retaped the opening of the show as precious seconds ticked away. He had other obstacles to face, including a rare breakdown of the microphone he was using in the first block of the show. Producers were able to get a report on the air as the anchor got a new mic, and Llamas would use a commercial break later in the show to redo the segment for viewers in other time zones.
“You’ve got to lock in,” says Llamas of what he does when something goes awry. “The fact of the matter is you are live, and you have to pivot. Something is going to happen.”
If time is tight on “Nightly News,” there is more room on “Top Story,” where Llamas has an hour to fill, giving correspondents more opportunity to explain nuances or show viewers what they did to get a story. There is time for longer exchanges with newsmakers. And Llamas may also explore lighter topics. Frucci oversees both programs, so the teams assigned to each can share information. While Llamas stays in NBC’s famous Studio 1A to anchor both properties, the producer hightails out of one control room as “Nightly” ends, scrambles through an underground mall below NBC’s headquarters and then dashes to an upstairs studio to continue his duties.
The duo expects to take “Nightly” wherever NBC goes in 2026. The network has a Super Bowl and a Winter Olympics to cover early next year. There will be an effort to cover the 250th birthday of the United States. And there are other projects. “Like everybody else, we’re working to get an interview with the president, and I’m hopeful that’s going to happen next year,” says Llamas.
He has yet to show up in one of President Trump’s rants on Truth Social. “You want to stick to reporting the news and stick to the facts and being tough but fair. And that’s what we’re always going to do,” says Llamas. “We’re going to report the story whether the administration likes it or not. And I think that’s what all American journalists just want to do right now. You know, you’re not trying to be antagonistic. You’re just trying to cover the news.”
With his “Nightly” tenure in its earliest days, Llamas hadn’t taken much time off until Thanksgiving. He wants to be in the chair in case someone who doesn’t typically watch the show decides to check it out. “I know people are going to be sampling. I know people are looking around out there,” he says. “I think every night matters.”
