Tom Llamas debuts on ‘Nightly News’ with subtle changes to on-air look

Tom Llamas anchored his first edition of “NBC Nightly News” on June 2, 2025, with some updates to graphics and how Studio 1A is blocked.

With the new anchor’s debut, the network opted to keep the broadcast in Studio 1A, its home since 2021. It also retained the same general look and feel, including the “NN” icon that debuted in June 2023, including the use of glassy 3D “N”s in front of both white and blue backgrounds. 

Lower third insert graphics also remained the same, as did the open, though obviously Llamas’ name was swapped in where Lester Holt’s appeared.

Top of the show

Right off the top, Llamas was shown in a seated position, with the date displayed on one of the mobile vertical monitors placed far to the camera’s left.

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Under Holt, this initial on-camera shot was done from a standing position in front of the curved video wall, with the vertical panel placed in that area.

After the open runs, the broadcast has also added a brief wide reverse view of the studio that starts behind the “Today” sunrise logo sculpture and swings around to reveal Llamas awaiting his cue.

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Lighting

There has also been a noticeable change to the lighting cues used in Studio 1A, with Llamas’ look darker and more blue than under Holt.

This is especially apparent when the wood-toned sections of the studio floor are visible. During Holt’s tenure, the floor was decidedly in the brown-orange family, whereas starting June 2, the floor lost almost all of its wood appearance.

Another change linked to lighting is evident during the broadcast’s short C block, which is typically produced from in front of the motorized six-panel array in front of the studio’s longer wall of windows, sometimes referred to as the production area. 

It now appears that the windows in this space are completely covered, likely as a way to keep the broadcast’s darker look. 

Video wall ‘N’ loop

While “Nightly” continues to use video wall graphics depicting glassy, oversized “N”s, it appears that some tweaks have been made to the look, including toning down some of the brighter highlights. However, it is admittedly difficult to tell simply from airchecks.

Blocking seated anchor intros

An additional noticeable change is how the seated position is shot. It appears the camera is now being positioned slightly higher.

During Holt’s time at the anchor desk, this shot typically appeared to be captured with the camera positioned slightly lower than how it looks with Llamas. 

NBC also opted to switch the three horizontal stripes in the knee wall in the camera left knee wall that tucked behind the primary video wall to different shades of blue, whereas they were typically white when Holt was anchor. This change is also reflected in the knee wall running along the larger row of windows.

Video in video wall graphics

Also, “Nightly” is now showing video clips in most of the video wall graphics behind the seated anchor position. Prior to June 2, the broadcast would typically fill the array with a series of still graphics with animated transitions. For the top story from the standing position, however, “Nightly” continues to use mostly still images with more dramatic wipes.

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Commercial squeezeback

NBC also redesigned the layout used during the first commercial break. 

Before, the layout was dominated by the dark “N” animation background and largely mirrored a pillarbox layout with the show logo and “returns in” countdown along the top. 

Under the window for the advertising was space for a headline to spotlight what was yet to come.

Now the layout is filled with two of the white-gray versions of the background loop, with the blue-violet version just peeking through in between them and around the edges.

The commercial plays in roughly the left two-thirds of the screen with the show logo and countdown below. The remainder of the screen width is devoted to vertical tease headlines.

This new layout feels a bit more in line with the tease headline and “coming up” graphics the show uses, and has the added benefit of most of the on-screen text becoming larger.