Tonight at 6:30 on WPXI, Tom Llamas will anchor “NBC Nightly News” from a familiar – but undisclosed for security reasons – Pittsburgh location as part of NBC News’ “Reporting for America” campaign, an effort to report from communities nationwide, not just from the media centers on the coasts.
Llamas took over as “Nightly” anchor this summer following anchor Lester Holt’s retirement from the national newscast. (Holt anchored “Nightly” from Pittsburgh in May 2018 when Pittsburgh native Meghan Rafferty executive produced the broadcast. Rafferty now works at cable’s MS Now.)
Llamas said Pittsburgh was chosen to be featured among this week’s “Nightly” on-location broadcasts as part of his effort to get into local newsrooms and meet local broadcast journalists.
“When news breaks, we depend on them. … Local newsrooms are the central nervous system of the country,” Llamas said Tuesday. “I want to build that relationship, build that trust. We have a lot of viewers here and it’s great — even if it’s a small amount of time – to bring the show here and showcase Pittsburgh. It’s a beautiful city.”
Llamas has been to Pittsburgh many times before, including last year when he was assigned to cover the Trump presidential campaign.
“If you cover national news, you should have come through Pittsburgh,” Llamas said. “Politically, it’s an important part of the map. Pittsburgh is a patch of blue in a sea of red.”
When national newscasts travel, they often highlight a local story, which is also part of “Nightly’s” plan.
“It’s a story I don’t want to tell of Aaron Rodgers [and the Steelers] beating my Miami Dolphins,” said Llamas, who grew up in Miami. “We’re also going to work with [WPXI meteorologist Stephen] Cropper, who will join our broadcast and give the forecast because we’re following some extreme weather.”
Llamas is the fourth anchor of “NBC Nightly News” over the last 40 years. After each “Nightly” broadcast Llamas anchors “Top Story” for an hour on streaming outlet NBC News Now.
NBC says ratings for “NBC Nightly News” improved in 11 markets since Llamas took over as anchor, including on WPXI in Pittsburgh where the broadcast went from an average No. 2 to No. 1.
Nielsen ratings for November 2025 show “Nightly” as No. 1 in the key demo of adults 25-54 (ABC’s “World News Tonight” is No. 2; the second half of then 6 p.m. local news on KDKA-TV ranked third) and just a smidge behind “World News Tonight” in household ratings (a 5.9 rating for “Nightly;” 6.0 for “World News Tonight,” but both broadcasts had a 17 share of the viewing audience, per Nielsen).
“Nightly News” was supposed to broadcast from Cleveland Monday but that was canceled due to the volume of serious news from the weekend: the Bondi Beach anti-Semitic terror attack, the shooting at Brown University, the murder of director/actor Rob Reiner and his wife.
On Wednesday, Llamas heads to Houston, Texas, and he’ll visit another batch of NBC affiliates in different American cities in 2026. Llamas will be on-site for NBC’s coverage of “Super Bowl LX” outside San Francisco and he’ll travel to cover the “Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026” from Italy in February.
Penguins tonight
SportsNet Pittsburgh will offer pre- and post-game coverage tonight of Sidney Crosby’s chase for the Penguins’ all-time points record.
Crosby enters the game three points shy of surpassing Mario Lemieux as the Penguins’ all-time leading scorer.
Pre-game begins at 7 p.m. on cable’s SNP and streaming on SNP 360 before the Penguins play the Edmonton Oilers at PPG Arena.
If Crosby ties or surpasses Lemieux, SNP post-game coverage will expand to include press conferences and locker room reactions.
Aguilera in Paris
Wexford’s own Christina Aguilera will headline “Christmas in Paris,” a new CBS holiday special featuring songs from Aguilera’s holiday album “My Kind of Christmas.”
Airing at 9 p.m. Dec. 22 on KDKA-TV, the special will see Aguilera sing Christmas classics and her career hits in front of the Eiffel Tower and the Musée du Quai Branly.
Kept/canceled/ordered
PBS’s “Masterpiece” will develop a second season of “Miss Austen.”
Netflix canceled the excellent drama series “Boots” after a single season.
MGM ordered an eight-episode series based on the Western film “The Magnificent Seven” to be written by “Heroes” scribe Tim Kring.