Lester Holt Biography

Lester Holt is an American journalist and news anchor for NBC Nightly News and Dateline NBC on weekdays. Following the demotion of Brian Williams, Holt was named the permanent anchor of NBC Nightly News on June 18, 2015.

Lester Holt Age

Holt is 63 years old as of 2022. He was born Lester Don Holt Jr. on 8 March 1959 in Marin County, California, United States.

Lester Holt Height

Holt stands at a height of 6 feet 1 inch (1.87 m).

Lester Holt Family

June (DeRozario) and Lester Don Holt Sr. had four children, and Holt was the youngest of them. His maternal grandparents were born in the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Canute DeRozario, his maternal grandfather, was one of 14 children born to an Indo-Jamaican father from Calcutta, India, and an English-born White Jamaican mother. May, his maternal grandmother, was born in Jamaica but raised in Harlem, New York, the same city as his mother. His father was a black man from Michigan who had ties to Tennessee.

Lester Holt Wife

Holt is married to Carol Hagen. The couple lives in Manhattan with their two boys, Stefan and Cameron.

Lester Holt wife Ethnicity

Holt’s wife ethnicity is Caucasian-white. She is an American citizen because she was born in Seattle, Washington.

Lester Holt Education

He graduated from Rancho Cordova High School in 1977 and attended California State University, Sacramento, where he majored in government but never graduated.

Lester Holt Salary

Holt earns an annual salary of $10 Million.

Lester Holt Net Worth

Holt has an estimated net worth of $35 Million.

Lester Holt Career

Holt was a reporter, anchor, and overseas correspondent for CBS for 19 years. He began his career as a reporter for WCBS-TV in New York City in 1981. In 1982, he joined KNXT in Los Angeles as a reporter and weekend anchor, and the following year, he returned to WCBS-TV as a reporter and weekend anchor. Holt moved to WBBM-TV in Chicago in 1986, where he anchors the evening news for 14 years. Holt not only worked at the anchor desk, but also traveled throughout the world, reporting from places including Iraq, Northern Ireland, Somalia, El Salvador, and Haiti.

Lester Holt Photo
Lester Holt Photo

In the year 2000, Holt joined MSNBC.He began working full-time at NBC News in 2003, where he served as a replacement anchor for NBC Nightly News and Today. Following the death of previous co-anchor David Bloom, Holt became a full-time co-anchor of Weekend Today. He also hosted a two-hour daily newscast on MSNBC until late 2005. Holt was named the weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News on May 9, 2007, and anchored the show for eight years before being replaced by Brian Williams as the permanent anchor of the weekday edition. Holt also serves as the current host of NBC’s Dateline. In 2016, he moderated a presidential debate, and in 2017, he interviewed President Donald Trump, who stated he posed tough but necessary questions.

In addition to his primary duties at NBC News, he has hosted a special for The History Channel about 9/11 conspiracy theories, worked as a sportsdesk reporter for NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics, and is the host of Dateline on ID, an Investigation Discovery network edition of Dateline NBC. On the Sci-Fi Channel in 2008, he narrated a documentary about real crystal skulls.

Holt took over as weekday anchor when Brian Williams went on medical leave in 2013 for knee replacement surgery. Williams was fired from NBC Nightly News in 2015 for allegedly embellishing a story on the Iraq War, and Holt took over as the anchor. Holt moderated the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate in January 2016, as well as the first presidential debate on September 26, 2016, with a panel of NBC political reporters.

Donald Trump, a Republican presidential contender, called it a “very unfair system” because “Lester is a Democrat.” Holt was a registered Republican at the time. In 2018, he switched from being a member of a political party to being an independent. Donald Trump claimed after the debate that Holt did a “fantastic job.” Journalists also praised Holt’s performance, saying that he pushed Trump when he claimed that he opposed the Iraq war from the outset, which turned out to be incorrect.

“Kudos to Holt,” the Washington Post wrote, “for making it obvious that stop and frisk was declared unconstitutional in New York, even though Trump claimed it wasn’t.” When Holt interviewed President Trump in May 2017, they discussed Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey. Holt’s interview with Trump drew a lot of attention in the media.

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