Lester Holt Will Reportedly Anchor ‘Nightly News'

Following the news that has been making the rounds on the Internet that Brian Williams will reportedly not return to anchor NBC's Nightly News, reports claim that Lester Holt will take over the role from Williams permanently. Holt has been filling in for Williams during his six-month suspension, which was scheduled to end in August. On June 17, Brian Stelter at CNN reported that Williams will not resume his former position on Nightly News, but will still work with NBC in another capacity.

NBC has not released an official statement announcing Holt's permanent role as an anchor on the news program, nor on what Williams' new role within the network will be, although the Wall Street Journal claims that the network already made the decision. NBC is rumored to confirm the news sometime on June 18.

According to the Chicago Tribune, if the reports are true, the move would make Holt the "first solo African American anchor of a nightly broadcast network evening newscast." Holt's role as anchor will add to his already full schedule, which includes Dateline and the weekend edition of Today.

Fortune reports that, since Holt took over the anchor chair in February, Nightly News has "stayed competitive with ABC’s World News Tonight and CBS’s Evening News — its biggest rivals in the evening news ratings game."

The Chicago Tribune claims that Williams' new role will be handling breaking news on cable network MSNBC. As Bustle previously reported, Williams was suspended after claims he made regarding his time reporting on the Iraq War in 2003 were disputed. NBC opened a report on his work, and Williams stepped away from the anchor chair on Feb. 7.

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