Lester Holt appeared on The Kelly Clarkson show earlier today (remotely, of course) to promote the newly launched kids edition of NBC Nightly News. Clarkson spotted an upright bass in the background, and asked the newsman to indulge her and play a bit. He agreed to.
In addition to chatting about music and dogs, Holt spoke about working from home and reporting on the Covid-19 pandemic.
On working from home, “There is comfort, I put on a suit and tie, and yes I wear pants,” adding, “but I hit rock bottom one day, I was doing newscast, middle of the newscast, and I looked down one day and realized, ‘Oh, my god. I am barefoot,’ and it horrified me obviously the audience could not see it, but I was like oh, my goodness, this is where I am at.”
Not quite on the level of ABC News correspondent Will Reeve, who last month reported for GMA while wearing only boxers, a shirt and suit jacket (an accident, of course). Holt’s “barefoot” tale is amusing nonetheless.
The Nightly News anchor also spoke more broadly about the transition from studio to home.
“Obviously I deal in moments,” said Holt. “But I think it was one day toward the last few days that I was broadcasting from the studio versus my home and I was kind of holed up in my office and I open the door one day and I could not see anybody. It was weird. I’m at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the Nightly newsroom, and we had so quickly moved people to work off-site, and it just hit me that one day—I realized there are not a lot of people around here right now.”