Former “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd revealed Friday that he is leaving NBC after 18 years with the network.
Todd had been meeting with potential employers and news outlets in recent weeks, according to Variety, which cited sources it did not name.
“We’re grateful for Chuck’s many contributions to our political coverage during his nearly two-decade career at NBC News and for his deep commitment to ‘Meet the Press’ and its enduring legacy,” a statement from NBC News said. “We wish him all the best in his next endeavors.”
Todd’s NBC contract was expected to end after the 2024 election.
“There’s never a perfect time to leave a place that’s been a professional home for so long, but I’m pretty excited about a few new projects that are on the cusp of going from ‘pie in the sky’ to ‘near reality,’ Todd wrote in a memo to NBC workers on Friday. “So I’m grateful for the chance to get a jump start on my next chapter during this important moment.”
Todd said his “Chuck Toddcast” podcast will continue and said in the memo co-workers should “stay tuned for an announcement about its new home soon.”
Todd joined NBC in 2007, was named chief White House correspondent in 2008 and began hosting “Meet the Press “in 2014, a gig that continued through 2023.
Todd shared some philosophizing about the media in his memo.
Do you ever watch NBC News?
Yes: 5% (2 Votes)
No: 95% (37 Votes)
“The media has a lot of work to do to win back the trust of viewers/listeners/readers and I’m convinced the best place to start is from the bottom up,” he wrote.
“The only way to fix this information eco system is to stop whining about the various ways the social media companies are manipulating things and instead roll up our collective sleeves and start with local,” he wrote.
“National media can’t win trust back without having a robust partner locally and trying to game algorithms is no way to inform and report. People are craving community and that’s something national media or the major social media companies can’t do as well as local media,” he wrote.
🚨 JUST IN: “Sleepy Eyes” Chuck Todd is OUT at NBC, per multiple reports
Man, these anti-Trump hacks are dropping like flies 🤣🔥 pic.twitter.com/pdjvSGz83Q
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) January 31, 2025
On his podcast, he continued that train of thought, according to Entertainment Weekly.
“It’s the gutting of local media has gotten rid of what I believe are the folks [who] gave national media our credibility. And national media is not going to fix its credibility on its own,” he said.
“You’re not going to fix credibility by gaming an algorithm with a headline just because you get to increase traffic. I mean, some of the tactics that I’m seeing right now in the national space — I understand it from a business perspective, but it is a terrible idea from a journalistic perspective,” he said.
Todd said true journalists “can’t be propagandists.”
“We got to continue to call them like we see them. We got to continue covering politics as it is, not as we wish it were,” he said.
“Being a real political journalist isn’t about building a brand. It’s about simply reporting what’s happening, explaining why it’s happening, letting the public absorb the facts without judging them if they come to a different conclusion,” he said.
Todd’s departure comes as Comcast, which owns NBC and MSNBC, has explored restructuring that could put MSNBC and other NBCUniversal units into one massive spinoff, according to Politico.
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