I agree, although unfortunately, he certainly has to be in contention. Llamas was lured away as substitute anchor for ABC World News Tonight, and who knows what promises they made to get him?

What drives me crazy about Llamas is his inability to ask a reporter in the field a question without it coming out sounding like it's phony and scripted. Which it is, but it shouldn't be so obvious!

CBS is a mess, as this thread reveals and I have a real hard time with ABC's David Muir, who seems to be possessed of quite the ego. He insists on reading endless copy when throwing to a reporter in the field, and I sometimes find myself with my news producer hat on, screaming at the TV, "just get to the story already!"

His intros are overwritten and way too long, and everything he's involved in seems swollen by his own impression of himself.

Plus I can't stand the overly dramatic writing. ("The images just coming in now..." If you've ever worked in TV news, you know there's processing time for the tape and to edit it. So unless they're running something raw and unseen, which would be too dangerous, that's just not possible in most instances. I know I'm being deceived by this "need to sound urgent and current" crap, and it annoys me so much, I usually tune elsewhere.)

So whoever NBC chooses, I'm not likely to switch to someone else. Even if it's Llamas. 

Radio Bob wrote:

I don't watch ABC, so I don't know how long Muir's intros are.  However, having worked in a national news room, I do know that writers were encouraged to fluff out the intros a bit to make sure the anchor -- a.k.a. "The Franchise" -- got a significant amount of time on-camera.

If that's the case, Muir certainly gets his share of camera time. You sent a reporter a long way to cover a story. Let them tell it, for God's sake, instead of having your anchor give everything away in an intro that drones on and on and on.

The teasers into the show are at least 2 minutes long before they get to their top yarn. NBC is in the middle of their first story by then.

Still, I must be one of the few who feels that way. ABC World News Tonight is generally the #1 6:30 PM network newscast in the U.S. So somebody likes it. I just wonder how many stories get cut down or omitted so Mr. Muir can be on camera longer. 

Radio Bob wrote:

Please not Tom Lllamas as a replacement. He's too... polished... like "hey, look, I'm anchoring Nightly News."
Leave him out in the field.
That being said, I don't know who should replace Holt, who is my favourite of the US anchors.

Sadly, he seems to the odds-on favourite.

"His successor has yet to be named — but Page Six hears that Tom Llamas is widely believed to be taking over.

“It’s def Tom,” an NBC insider tells us exclusively. “It’s basically a race between Tom and Hallie Jackson, but Tom is 99 percent.”

Lester Holt leaving ‘NBC Nightly News’ after a decade as anchor — here’s who’s expected to replace him