Host and moderator of “Meet the Press”. Chuck Todd announced Sunday that he will be stepping down this 12 months after nine years as a public affairs talk show host. He will get replaced by Kristen Welker, the NBC News White House correspondent.
“It has been a tremendous almost ten-year run. I’m really pleased with what this team and I even have built over the last decade,” Todd said during Sunday’s broadcast. “I loved this job a lot, helping explain America to Washington and explain Washington to America.”
He plans to stay at NBC in his recent role as chief political analyst, where he will play a key role each in the field and in coverage of major events. It will also concentrate on long-form journalism.
“Once I took over Meet the Press, it was a Sunday show where many individuals questioned whether it could still have a spot in the modern media space,” added Todd. “Well, I believe we have answered that query, after which a couple of more.”
In a memo to employees, NBC News Editorial Board President Rebecca Blumenstein and NBC News Senior Vice President of Policy Carrie Budoff Brown praised Chuck’s “thoughtful and passionate leadership.”
Meet the Press has maintained its historic role as an indispensable Sunday morning news show,” said Blumenstein and Budoff Brown. “Because of his insightful interviews with a lot of the most significant journalists, the series played a key role in politics and politics, routinely made headlines and shaped considering in Washington and beyond.”
Welker joins a host of hosts that include Tim Russert, who hosted the show from 1991 until his death in 2008. She is the second woman – after inaugural host Martha Rountree – and the first black journalist to moderate Meet the Press. “
Meet the Press is the longest-running show on American television, celebrating its seventy fifth anniversary last 12 months. It led its rival shows in viewership for greater than eight years and won its first Emmy Award during Todd’s tenure for a special report titled “Schools, America, and Race.”
Todd was at the helm of the show during a few of the most groundbreaking political events of the last decade – including the final 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 riots on January 6, 2021.
In considered one of the most memorable interviews of the early Trump era, Todd asked Kellyanne Conway, considered one of Trump’s top aides, why then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer used his first appearance in the briefing room to dispute reports of the size of the crowd at the inauguration. Conway replied that Spicer did providing “alternative facts” — a phrase that quickly became synonymous with the Trump administration’s attitude to facts and the news media.
In response, Todd said, “Look, alternative facts usually are not facts. These are lies.”
Todd, the twelfth moderator of Meet the Press and a five-time Emmy Award winner, considered himself the show’s custodian. “I do not own it, I’m just sitting at home,” he said at the seventy fifth anniversary celebration in Washington last 12 months. “I need to leave it in a greater state for the next person, and one and all has done it.”
Welker repeatedly filled in for Todd on “Meet the Press”. In his remarks on Sunday’s broadcast, Todd said he was able to withdraw partly because Welker had been “ready for this for a very long time”.
“I’ve had the privilege of working together with her just about from day every body I can say is she’s the right person at the right time,” he said.
Welker joined NBC News in 2010 and have become a mainstay in the White House briefing room. She covered the last three presidential elections, traveled the world with top political leaders and moderated the last debate in 2020 between Trump and President Joe Biden. In 2020, she became the co-host of “Weekend Today”.
“She masterfully moderated the presidential debates in the primaries and general elections, and her harsh questioning of lawmakers is a masterclass in political interviews,” Blumenstein and Budoff Brown wrote in a memo to employees. “She’s a headstrong reporter who likes to get the big news and is widely admired throughout the office and network for her deeply collaborative nature.”
Welker will take over the program as the 2024 presidential campaign gains momentum and prepares to enter the primary. The primary GOP debate is scheduled for August 23, the Republican National Committee announced last week.
Todd took over Meet the Press in September 2014, replacing David Gregory, expanding the show’s broadcasting and digital footprint to incorporate a weekly podcast, blog and annual film festival. Along with the Sunday show, he helped launch and host “MTP Every day”, the weekday version of the show airing on MSNBC, before moving to streaming service NBC News Now last 12 months.
Previously, he was the chief White House correspondent for NBC News and host of MSNBC’s The Every day Rundown. Prior to joining NBC, Chuck was the editor-in-chief of The Hotline, a news and political commentary site, where he earned a popularity as an astute election analyst with a fast grasp of information.
Disclosure: NBC News and CNBC are units of NBCUniversal owned by Comcast.