After four years at WNBC in New York, Stefan Holt is moving back home to Chicago and returning to WMAQ-Channel 5 as a Monday-through-Friday main news anchor, the NBC-owned station announced today.
Holt, 33, the son of “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt, previously spent five years as morning news anchor at NBC 5. Starting October 12, he will co-anchor the station's 4 and 10 p.m. newscasts.
Rob Stafford, who now co-anchors with Allison Rosati at 5, 6 and 10 p.m., will continue with her at 5 and 6 p.m. and join the station's investigative reporting team. Patrick Fazio, who co-anchors with Marion Brooks at 4 p.m., will shift to the 11 a.m. newscast with Brooks.
“I will be forever grateful for my time in New York," Holt said in a statement. "Anchoring alongside some of the best in our industry and during one of the most tumultuous times in our history has been a privilege, and a highlight of my career.
“Chicago is the city where I grew up and where my wife and I want to raise our two boys. I couldn’t be more excited to return to my roots and reunite with my teammates at NBC 5.”
His father spent 14 years as a news anchor at CBS-owned WBBM-Channel 2 before moving to New York to join NBC in 2000. Since 2015 he's been anchor of “NBC Nightly News.”
Born in Chicago during the time his father was at CBS 2, Holt graduated from Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, and held internships with KABC in Los Angeles and NBC News in London before joining WPBF, the ABC affiliate in West Palm Beach, Florida, as a reporter and fill-in anchor in 2009.
Two years later, the younger Holt landed at NBC 5 as a reporter and weekend morning anchor. Within months he was promoted to weekday morning anchor. In 2016 he moved to WNBC.
Frank Whittaker, station manager and vice president of news at NBC 5, said of the anchor changes: “These moves allow us to welcome back a very talented anchor and boost our investigative team with a skilled investigative journalist at time when investigative journalism is needed now more than ever.”