ABC World News Tonight Weekend anchor and chief national correspondent Tom Llamas is leaving ABC for NBC.
That’s according to a report in the New York Post.
NBC News did not comment, nor did ABC News.
In addition to his role as World News Tonight Weekend anchor and chief national correspondent, Llamas began anchoring breaking news and live special event coverage for ABC’s streaming news service ABC News Live at this time last year.
In Oct.2018, Llamas managed to snag the only broadcast news interview with Melania Trump during her time as first lady. The discussion, which was the centerpiece of a 20/20 special, took place during the first lady’ trip to Kenya.
Llamas crisscrossed the country in 2016 covering Donald Trump‘s presidential campaign for ABC News, and famously was called a “sleaze” by the future president. When TVNewser asked Llamas about that experience, he told us: “In my lifetime, there has never been a person, place, or weather system that has generated as much news as Donald Trump.”
Llamas spent 14 years at NBC News—both at the local and national levels—before making the move to ABC News in fall of 2014. Before the move, he had most recently been an investigative reporter and anchor of the 5 p.m. news at NBC 4 New York (WNBC), as well as a contributing correspondent for NBC News.
Llamas’ return to NBC makes some sense. NBCUniversal has built up its news portfolio in recent years. There’s the broadcast network, the cable news network, to go with a streaming service. In theory, there are opportunities for Llamas to contribute across myriad platforms. Plus, Llamas has a friend in NBCUniversal News Group chairman Cesar Conde, and considers NBC Nightly News Saturday and Noticias Telemundo anchor Jose Diaz Balart a mentor, going back to his Miami TV news days. Plus, he met his wife at NBC News! (Former MSNBC ep Jen Llamas).