NBC Nightly News Executive Producer Sam Singal Has Stepped Down

By A.J. Katz 

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt executive producer Sam Singal has stepped down from his role on the evening newscast, TVNewser has learned.

Singal’s No. 2, Nightly News senior broadcast producer Jennifer Suozzo, will take over on an interim basis.

Singal had been Holt’s ep on Weekend Nightly News since 2011, before joining the weeknight broadcast in September 2015, replacing Pat Burkey who had been ep of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. Burkey now oversees MSNBC’s afternoon coverage.

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Suozzo is a longtime NBC Newser. She started her career at NBC’s station in Hartford, before joining MSNBC in the mid-2000s. She moved up from line producer to senior producer and was the launch ep of Andrea Mitchell Reports.

Singal has been with NBC News for 20 years including stints at Dateline, the Today show, and with NBC News digital. He started his career at ABC News as a desk assistant. He is in discussions regarding future roles at the network. Another former Nightly News ep, John Reiss, is now ep of Meet the Press with Chuck Todd.

We hear Singal’s Nightly News colleagues will hold a celebration in his honor next Thursday.

“I am incredibly grateful for my time here and so incredibly proud of all the terrific journalism that everyone in this room and on the phone does every single day,” Singal told staff earlier today. “It is smart, it is thorough, and most importantly, it is fair and it’s something that I am very proud of when I leave here every night.”

Holt said of Singal: “You fight for this show every day … you have been there for us, you have listened to my wacky ideas sometimes and have given me counsel and direction, and I am grateful for that and you do leave us in a strong position.”

Holt continued, “You have built an incredible team. You look around this room, and a lot of the people in this room are here because you saw something in them and you brought them on board. And because we have this amazing team, we have Jenn who is going to be seeing us through the coming days and weeks.”

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