Chuck Todd Announces Departure from ‘Meet the Press’

After nine years as the moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Chuck Todd has announced that he will be stepping down and ceding the position to Kristen Welker, the network’s chief White House correspondent. Todd acknowledged that many leaders tend to “overstay their welcome” and expressed a desire to leave “a little bit too soon than stay a tad too long.”

Having spent nearly 30 years consumed by work, Todd noted that he has witnessed numerous friends and family members become consumed by their work, and he had promised his family that he would not let it happen to him. Todd, a seasoned political journalist in Washington, took over the moderator position in 2014 and has offered compelling interviews with newsmakers such as Vice President Kamala Harris, former Vice President Mike Pence, Republican presidential aspirant Vivek Ramaswamy, and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader.

NBC News’ president of editorial, Rebecca Blumenstein, and the network’s senior vice president of politics, Carrie Budoff Brown, thanked Todd in a memo and stated that he will serve as NBC’s chief political analyst. Todd’s activities have played an integral role in politics and policymaking, shaping the thinking of Washington and beyond, making headlines, and frequently being covered in the front pages of newspapers.

Kristen Welker, 46, is a longtime employee of NBC and started working as an intern for “Today” in 1997. She has been with the network full-time since 2010, where she covered presidents abroad, including Belgium, England, Austria, Poland, and Japan. In 2020, she was widely praised for her handling of the final presidential debate between President Donald J. Trump and Joe Biden.

Chuck Todd replaced David Gregory, who became the moderator of the show after the death of Tim Russert in 2008. Since Russert’s death, “Meet the Press” viewership has dwindled substantially.

In 2014, Todd introduced “MTP Daily,” the first installment of “Meet the Press” that aired daily on MSNBC until last year, when it moved to NBC News Now, the network’s advertising-supported streaming platform.

Chuck Todd will conduct his final broadcast as the moderator of “Meet the Press” in September.