Rising NBC News star Tom Llamas ruffles co-workers’ feathers with ‘challenging’ management style

The new face of NBC News, Tom Llamas, has brought ‘a much more hands-on and hard-charging’ approach to the program than that of his predecessor Lester Holt, a new report has revealed.

The no-nonsense style is reportedly upsetting staffers used to a more laid-back approach from Holt, multiple people ‘familiar with the’ matter told Breaker.

Llamas, in contrast, is more aggressive, the insider accounts claimed.

‘He has a management style that has been extremely challenging on some of the team,’ one staffer said of Llamas, 46.

‘He challenges people to do their best, to think more deeply about the editorial process,’ a correspondent added. ‘It helps us to raise our game. The expectations are high, but they should be.’

A producer further told Daily Mail: ‘His energy is infectious, he raises the bar for everyone.’

The rising star’s executive producer, Meghan Rafferty, called it ‘super fun’ working with Llamas’, during a lunchtime meeting at 30 Rock Tuesday.

There, she told staffers she was leaving to join MSNBC’s new parent company Versant.

Holt, 66, left the program last spring after ten years at the helm and was well-liked by viewers. Llamas now has his work cut out for him to try and catch up with ABC World News Tonight’s David Muir, who last week scored his biggest ratings win over NBC Nightly News in more than a year.

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The new face of NBC News, Tom Llamas, has brought ‘a much more hands-on and hard-charging’ approach to the program than that of his predecessor Lester Holt, three people ‘familiar with the’ leadership shift told Breaker this week

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The style from Tom Llamas is reportedly upsetting staffers used to a more laid-back approach from Holt. Llamas, in contrast, is more aggressive

Llamas, once Muir’s protégé, has done well with younger viewers, occasionally his older rival in the key 25-54 year-old demographic twice since his start in June.

That age group is particularly sought by advertisers because it tends to have higher disposable income.

He has also continued to anchor his other show, NBC News Now’s Top Story, where there has been virtually no turnover turnover since he started hosting in 2021, sources told Daily Mail.

But Holt, a fixture in American households for more than a decade, was a major loss.

The 66-year-old newsman remains at the network with Dateline –  a decision he told Variety in May stemmed from a deep-rooted desire to get his hands dirty with stories that do not demand a desk.

Insiders told Breaker that Rafferty’s move, similarly, stemmed from a desire to avoid the daily rat race of producing a show that requires a certain style of leadership.

Llamas’ style – at least compared to Holt’s ‘low-key and unassuming’ style that the New York Times talked up in a profile penned in 2019 – has been difficult for some to digest.

He’s been in the hot seat for just eight weeks. Previously, before joining NBC News in 2021, he worked under Muir as a weekend host on World News Tonight.

The show, once second-place to NBC Nightly News, is comfortably in first place with 7.272 million average total viewers as of the week of July 21, new Nielsen numbers show – much more than Llamas’ 5.6 million.

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Previously, before joining NBC News in 2021, he worked under ABC News’ David Muir as a weekend host on World News Tonight, which is growing its lead over the Peacock Network’s primetime entry

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Llamas’ strides against Muir with winning over younger viewers, however, unsettled ABC News bosses who regard Muir as the network’s crown jewel, sources told Daily Mail last month. Llamas, 46, previously told The Washington Post of his desire ‘to be number one’

June was also ABC’s biggest ratings win in three decades for the second quarter, continuing a trend of dominance started by Muir after he succeeded a then second-place Diane Sawyer.

Llamas’ strides against Muir, 51, with winning over younger viewers, however, unsettled ABC News bosses who regard Muir as the network’s crown jewel, sources told Daily Mail last month.

Llamas, 46, previously told The Washington Post of his desire ‘to be number one.’

‘It’s not easy,’ he said. ‘But it’s something I think we can do.’