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Tom, this is kind of crazy. Yeah, it's wild. We, we go way back. Yeah. What do you remember those days when we worked together at WTBJ in Miami? Yeah, you know, it's incredible because I, I was, you know, *** very new young reporter, uh, working in the streets on the night shift covering *** lot of crime, uh, but we worked in ***, in *** great city where there was *** lot of news and *** lot of opportunities, and, um, I just remember just, you know, wanting to work hard and wanting to be the best reporter I could be and then. Trying to get on *** better shift and then maybe maybe maybe hopefully like becoming an investigative reporter and then uh maybe one day going to the network as *** correspondent, um, you know, you, you start off with little dreams and then maybe those dreams get bigger and bigger and then you get to *** point where you think wow this is gonna happen and it's, it's unbelievable but if you would have told that kid back then you're gonna be here now, um, that'd be crazy, yeah, and if you told him you're gonna be talking to Guy Rawlings, I'd be like, what? Now you're covering the biggest stories in the country around the world. So much for people to digest on *** daily basis. How do you help people to just make sense of everything that's going on? You know, people now, we all are, we're inundated by news. You get text alerts, your friends are texting you, your mom's asking you about something that may or may not be true. Um, I think at the end of the day our job is to make sure we inform the viewers, right? Um, we're gonna be out there, we're gonna be covering every story from every. Angle, but also letting viewers know there might be stories out there you don't know about and this is important and here's why um with all of these amazing products we now have in our hands, all these digital devices, there's *** lot of misinformation. Nightly News is *** place you can always come to to get the truth and to get informed. You mentioned truth. Obviously that's very important to what we do and and and you being the face of nightly news going forward. Yeah, and I think you do that. Two ways the legacy of Nightly News. People know that's *** show that I can trust. That's *** brand I can trust. People in Birmingham for generations have tuned into Nightly News. It's one of our most popular markets, um, and that's an honor to know that the people turned to us in Alabama because they know that they're gonna get the truth there. I think if you're tough but fair and you report the news without fear or favor, that's the way I go in every day. That's the way I go in to every story. I'm gonna be managing editor of Nightly News just like Lester Holt was, and that essentially means that I'm gonna be in. Every story I'm gonna be in on pretty much every question every second of that broadcast, um, I want to hear people's ideas. I'm gonna have ideas as well, uh, and I'm gonna make sure we're gonna work really, really hard to bring you the best newscast at night. Obviously big shoes to fill with Lester Holt. How has he helped to mentor and guide your journey? He's *** great guy. I've known him my entire career. I've known him since I was *** production assistant. Uh, he worked with my wife. He's been *** friend and he was always there for me at different points in my career when I was at *** crossroads and I, I would have *** question and. I'd always turn to Lester and be like, what would you do here? and he always had great advice. He always had the best advice so it's, it's awesome that in this role now I I get to get the baton from him because he is such an amazing guy. He's *** gentleman, he's the most trusted news anchor in America. I mean, what *** title, right? Everybody would hope to have that in our industry, uh, but he's also just *** good guy and so I've been able to talk to him we've been talking *** lot, *** lot more lately. And we talked only about the job, about journalism, um, about big interviews, but we also talk about our families. He's *** father too, just like I am. I got 3 kids. He had 2 sons and he came up through the business while they were growing up just like I am right now. And so *** lot of the conversations I'm having now are about family, um, and about responsibilities, right? Because the viewers rely on us and I want them to know that just like I'm there for my family, I'm gonna be there for the viewers. Speaking of the viewers, they always wanna know the, the local, regional and national stories, international as well, but how, how important is it to make them understand this is how it affects you? Yeah, I, I, I think it's by having *** great relationship with our local stations, right? You, you guys are our eyes and ears in all these cities, um, you know, if something's happening in Birmingham, we know about it because of you guys. You guys are the. Central nervous system for your community if you guys twitch then everyone reacts and so one of the reasons why I'm doing this is because I wanna get to know you guys. I, I want you to know me too. So when you guys have *** big story or you have *** great story that the whole country has to see, you can call me up and say, Tom, I got something for you. I'll be like, send it up let's watch it. Let's do it. Um, I think our, our stations, our NBC stations across the country. Are so strong that our viewers should not be surprised if they see somebody from Birmingham pop up on the nightly news. I came up in local news. I know how great the journalists are and if there's *** great story out of Birmingham and with one of your people, I'd love to have them on nightly news. Can I ask how you're feeling? Are you nervous? Are you excited? I'm excited, you know, I say pressure is *** privilege, you know, I thought about this for *** long time. Uh, it's crazy this just talking to you is crazy, you know, thinking about this and it's gonna happen. Um, I'll tell you *** little story. We were, um, we were looking at *** couple of things that I was filling in for Lester the other day and the director brought me over and I, I could kind of see some people were sort of huddled in the background and they were testing something out and it was, it was the sort of the new announced and it was like nightly news with Tom Llamas, but I didn't know they were gonna play that so I'm like looking at him like what are they showing me here and they played it and it was like. I try to act cool, but I was not cool. I was like, I, I need *** moment. I was like, is there, is there pollen in here? I was like, what's going on? Um, uh, but it's, uh, it's good. I'm, I'm looking forward to it. I'm, I'm very excited. I think the viewers, uh, the viewers, it's not gonna be radical change. I, I don't believe in revolution. I believe in evolution and also Nightly News is *** great newscast. They people have believed in this. They trust this. I'm, I'm not gonna change that. Little by little I'm gonna put my stamp on it, uh, and I look forward to doing that. Even in Miami you were you were *** hard worker and I don't know where that, where does that come from come from your parents? Yeah, no, it does come from my parents. My parents are Cuban American, um, they came to this country when they were children, my grandparents fled communist Cuba and I think, um, just knowing from them their story, hearing it growing up in *** Cuban American community in Miami. Um, they lost their country but they gained this country, so you don't, you don't take things like that for granted, right? You don't take your country, your democracy, even *** job to me *** job is, is something amazing to have, and you can't take that for granted. So I think it came from that and I think, um, you know, part of the, I believe the work ethic that that I was given is that you always got to prove yourself and so I think that was always in the back of my mind that I had to prove myself. I had to maybe work *** little bit harder, uh, and I'm but I'm glad I'm glad I had that. Work ethic because I need it now because now I'm working around the clock so I so it's good to have that. I'll be doing nightly news at night and then right after we're gonna roll into our streaming show which is Top Story with Tom Llamas and the reason why we did that was my idea. I, I think you have to really be where where the viewer is, where the consumer is. I mean, NBC News has done an amazing job in the last 3 years to making sure our website is the best news website out there, and I believe it is. I mean, when, when people in the news news breaks, they can go to NBCNews.com. Um, you have Today's show, you have Nightly News, you have Dateline, but you gotta be in streaming too because younger viewers go to streaming and so I wanted to make sure we had an hour of news there too. I want people to know that at night when news breaks you need to turn to NBC News. We're gonna have the story wherever you are, we're gonna find you, we're gonna bring you the story and we're gonna have the best information. I went to Florida. I believe you went to Miami. No, no, I'm I'm *** Cannes fan. I went to Loola. I'm *** huge University of Miami Cannes fan. We're talking football, college football. What do you wanna talk about? I was gonna say in Alabama, oh yeah, either Crimson Tide, you know, roll tide or eagle. I, I've covered enough, uh, campaigns in my life to know that. I can't, I'm not gonna make *** call on that at all. I will say I, I will say college football to me is my number one sport. There's nothing better than college football. There's nothing better than tailgating, the rivalries. I mean it is just so much, so much fun. There's this great team called the Miami Hurricanes. I'll root for them, uh, but, um, I, I just, I love college football. I love everything about it and uh. Alabama is the mecca for college football. Have you been to Alabama? Uh, I, oh yeah, I've been, I've covered several stories in Alabama. I love it. Uh, *** lot of close colleagues are from Alabama as well, um, have gone to, uh, the beautiful Gulf Shores in Alabama, beautiful beaches, beautiful people, and, uh, yeah, I've always had *** good time in Alabama. It's always been *** great time and *** great community, um, hard working people, and I, and I know there are people who for *** long time have loved nightly news and and that makes me really happy. You know. Uh, our viewers don't get this opportunity to sit with you and get to know you and get to talk to you. What do you want our viewers to know about Tom Llamas? Just, just I want them to know that I'm there for them, you know, we have the opportunity to be at the White House. We have the opportunity to sit in front of world leaders. We have the opportunity to question CEOs, just know that I'm working for them, that every day when we get into that news meeting and we're trying to figure out our stories, I'm thinking about them. I work for NBC, but I work for them. Um, and so I want them to know that and number 2, I want them to know that they can trust me, you know, I, I've been in this business for *** very long time. I've gotten here for *** reason. It's because I've worked really hard, um, I believe in ethics in this industry, and then just to know that I love this country, I think you have to. I think to be *** good journalist you have to really love this country. Because you know it doesn't work. Democracy doesn't work unless you love this country. And so, um, I believe in in America and, uh, I believe in NBC. Congratulations. We're so proud of you and we really appreciate this time to talk. Thank you. It's great getting to know you guys.