“Meet the Press” host and moderator Chuck Todd announced on Sunday that he’ll step down this yr after nine years hosting the general public affairs talk show. Kristen Welker, NBC News’ co-chief White House correspondent, will succeed him.
“It has been an incredible nearly decadelong run. I’m really happy with what this team and I actually have built over the past decade,” Todd said throughout the broadcast Sunday. “I’ve loved a lot of this job, helping to elucidate America to Washington and explain Washington to America.”
He plans to stay at NBC in a recent role as chief political analyst, where he’ll function a key voice each in the sphere and through coverage of major events. He can even deal with longform journalism.
“Once I took over ‘Meet the Press,’ it was a Sunday show that had a variety of people questioning whether it still could have a spot in the trendy media space,” Todd added. “Well, I feel we have answered that query after which some.”
In a memo to staff members, NBC News’ president of editorial, Rebecca Blumenstein, and NBC News’ senior vp of politics, Carrie Budoff Brown, hailed “Chuck’s thoughtful and passionate leadership.”
“‘Meet the Press’ has sustained its historic role because the indispensable news program on Sunday mornings,” Blumenstein and Budoff Brown said. “Through his penetrating interviews with lots of crucial newsmakers, the show has played a vital role in politics and policy, routinely made front-page news, and framed the considering in Washington and beyond.”
Welker joins the ranks of hosts that included Tim Russert, who presided over the show from 1991 until his death in 2008. She is the second woman — following its inaugural host, Martha Rountree — and the primary Black journalist to moderate “Meet the Press.”
“Meet the Press” is the longest-running show on American television, celebrating its seventy fifth anniversary last yr. It has led its rival shows in total viewers for greater than eight years and won its first Emmy during Todd’s tenure for a special report titled “Schools, America, and Race.”
Todd was on the helm of the show during a few of the most seminal political events of the last decade — including the ultimate years of President Barack Obama’s administration, the 2016 presidential campaign and the election of Donald Trump, and the aftermath of the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
In one of the vital memorable interviews of the early Trump era, Todd asked Kellyanne Conway, one among Trump’s top aides, why then-White House press secretary Sean Spicer used his first appearance within the briefing room to dispute reports in regards to the crowd size on the inauguration. Conway replied that Spicer was providing “alternative facts” — a turn of phrase that quickly became synonymous with the Trump administration’s attitude towards facts and the news media.
In response, Todd said: “Look, alternative facts aren’t facts. They’re falsehoods.”
Todd — the twelfth moderator of “Meet the Press” and a five-time Emmy-winning journalist — saw himself as a custodian of the show. “I do not own this, I’m just house sitting,” he said during a seventy fifth anniversary celebration in Washington last yr. “I would like to go away it in higher shape for the following person, and all and sundry has done that.”
Welker has commonly filled in for Todd on “Meet the Press.” In his remarks during Sunday’s broadcast, Todd said he was able to step back partly because Welker has been “ready for this for a very long time.”
“I’ve had the privilege of working along with her from essentially her first day, and let me just say she’s the best person in the best moment,” he said.
Welker joined NBC News in 2010 and have become a mainstay within the White House briefing room. She’s covered the last three presidential elections, traveled all over the world with top political leaders, and moderated the ultimate 2020 debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. In 2020 she was named the co-host of “Weekend Today.”
“She has masterfully moderated primary and general election presidential debates and her sharp questioning of lawmakers is a masterclass in political interviews,” Blumenstein and Budoff Brown said of their memo to staff members. “She is a dogged reporter who relishes getting big scoops and is widely admired throughout the bureau and the network for her deeply collaborative nature.”
Welker will take over the show because the 2024 presidential campaign heats up and prepares to enter the first season. The primary GOP debate is scheduled for Aug. 23, the Republican National Committee announced last week.
Todd took over “Meet the Press” in September 2014, succeeding David Gregory, expanding this system’s broadcast and digital footprint to incorporate a weekly podcast, a blog and an annual film festival. Along with the Sunday program, he helped launch and hosted “MTP Every day,” a weekday version of the show that aired on MSNBC before moving to the streaming service NBC News Now last yr.
He previously served as NBC News’ chief White House correspondent and host of the MSNBC series “The Every day Rundown.” Before arriving at NBC, Chuck was editor-in-chief of The Hotline, a political news and commentary website, where he developed a fame as an incisive elections analyst with a fast command of knowledge.
Disclosure: NBC News and CNBC are units of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast.
