Before & After Pics Highlight The Transformations Of NBC's Top Anchors And Hosts

NBC has served as one of America's leading news stations for decades. It's a go-to source for many amid some of the nation's and the world's biggest events and stories. The programming is must-see TV each day for some, and background noise for others, but no matter what, NBC is on millions of televisions across the United States each day, thanks in large part to its anchors. Journalists like John Chancellor and Tom Brokaw helped the network establish its reputation early on, while presenters like Katie Couric and Brian Williams helped usher in a new era of television reporting.

The current roster includes a mix of veteran TV news personalities who have been with the network since the '90s, as well as some who were brought aboard in the 2010s. If there is one thing all of these hosts and reporters have in common, it is that they have certainly transformed over the years. Take a look at the before and after pictures of NBC's top anchors and hosts.

Savannah Guthrie has been part of the NBC family for about two decades. Her first appearances on "Today" came in 2001 as a guest White House correspondent for a few episodes. In 2007, her spot at the network became more permanent when she joined NBC News, again as a White House correspondent. In 2011, Savannah joined the "Today" team as the chief legal correspondent, and her role on the show has adapted ever since. Now, thanks to her work doing everything from interviewing criminals to moderating presidential town halls, Savannah is one of the most recognizable faces at NBC.

Just as viewers have gotten through life's trials by watching Savannah on screen every day, Savannah has leaned on "Today" during her toughest moments. In early 2026, Savannah's mother, Nancy Guthrie, was kidnapped from her home in Tucson, Arizona. The story gripped the nation, and Savannah spent several weeks away from NBC while she navigated her family's nightmare. When Savannah returned to work, she shared on an episode of "Today with Jenna & Sheinelle" how she managed to do so amid her stress and grief. "I'm happy to be back ... It's something to do, and it brings me a lot of joy to be with everybody. But it's not easy," she said, noting that her mother would have encouraged her to keep going.

The world was first introduced to the stunning Jenna Bush Hager when she was a child. Her grandfather George H.W. Bush and her father, George W. Bush, both served as President of the United States, making Hager a person of national interest for much of her life. Hager started her career in education, but she transitioned into broadcasting after beginning her tenure with NBC in 2010 as a guest correspondent on "Today." Eventually Hager became a full-time co-host of the show, joining Hoda Kotb as the permanent host of the show's fourth hour in 2019.

These days, while still hosting at NBC, Hager is expanding her television career. In 2026, it was announced that she is developing a new scripted series, and it'll be somewhat informed by her political past. "We are working on a show called 'Protection,'" Hager said on an episode of "Today with Jenna & Sheinelle." "It's about different levels of law enforcement. Some based on Secret Service. So, y'all know I know about that," she added.

Dylan Dreyer joined NBC in the early 2010s, first making one-off appearances on episodes of series like "The Rachel Maddow Show" before officially joining the cast of "Weekend Today" as a weather anchor. A meteorologist by trade, since joining NBC, Dreyer has hosted and co-hosted a variety of shows, including "Today," "Journey with Dylan Dreyer," and "Earth Odyssey with Dylan Dreyer." She's provided coverage for the network during some of the most notable events of the past couple of decades, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017, the 2018 Winter Olympics, and the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

Like her co-hosts, Dreyer has been open on air about certain aspects of her personal life, including parenting. Dreyer's messy divorce from her ex, Brian Fichera, has also come up on the show. Now, after over a decade on screen, she has taken what she's learned in her personal life to build something new off screen: a podcast. In 2026, the reporter launched a new podcast called "The Parent Chat." "I've learned a lot in my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have it all figured out yet, and I'm not the only one," Dreyer said in the podcast's trailer. "On 'The Parent Chat,' Dylan calls in reinforcements — from parenting experts with big advice to fellow working moms that can help all parents feel less alone," the series' description reads. "Because parenting doesn't come with a manual, but it can come with a group chat."

Hoda Kotb's career at NBC started in 1998. The beloved anchor joined the network as a correspondent for "Dateline NBC," and by 2007, she was a co-host on one of NBC's most popular shows, "Today with Kathie Lee and Hoda," alongside her longtime friend Kathie Lee Gifford. Hoda stayed in that role through Gifford's retirement and then hosted it for years with Jenna Bush Hager, all the while co-hosting other hours of "Today," covering the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade each year, and guest hosting episodes of "Entertainment Tonight," among other duties.

Kotb has shared many times how some of the best moments of her life came after she turned 50, and she's proven multiple times that it's never too late to make a major change, including at work. In early 2025, Kotb stepped away from her role as "Today" co-host after nearly 20 years. Kotb still hosts a podcast for NBC, and she appears as a guest host on "Today" occasionally, but her career now looks much different than it did in 2024. And Kotb said she found success and navigated her career by following her heart. "If I love it, that'll be my litmus test. I didn't have a trajectory. I didn't say, 'By the time I'm 25 I want to be here, by the time I'm 30, 35, 40.' I kept following the road and the road led here," Kotb said in an interview with NBCU Academy.

At this point, Al Roker is America's meteorologist. Before joining the network, Roker delivered the weather news at NBC affiliate stations, and in 1996, he joined "Today" as a weather correspondent. Since then, Roker has been a fixture on the show, sharing updates on the frontlines of some of the most intense weather events in recent American history. Roker has also traveled across the globe — visiting places like Iceland and the Arctic — to share the effects of climate change in places outside of the United States. Roker is also known for covering the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and hosting "Christmas in Rockefeller Center" year after year.

In 2026, Roker celebrated his 30th anniversary at "Today." To honor Roker's legacy, the show put together a nearly 10-minute package featuring some of the highlights of his career and messages from his co-hosts and children, as well as celebrities he's interviewed. "My family here means so, so very much to me," Roker said near the end of the segment, including a thanks to his family and viewers, too. "This has just been an honor. To say it's a dream is not even close, because I never imagined anything like this ... I'm a very blessed person," he added.

Craig Melvin has risen the ranks of TV journalism. A South Carolina native, Melvin began his career as an evening news anchor in Columbia, South Carolina, before taking a job as a weekend anchor at an NBC affiliate station in Washington, D.C. In 2011, Melvin moved to New York City to work for NBC and MSNBC, first anchoring "MSNBC Live" and eventually taking spots on "Dateline" and "Today." Now, Melvin co-hosts the third hour of "Today," while also hosting various NBC shows and taking on special reports like Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, the 2022 Winter Olympics, and "Christmas in Rockefeller Center."

Melvin didn't get where he is today by accident — he worked hard for years to be part of an elite group of newscasters. "I'd say maybe the biggest lesson for me has been that hard work pays off. I remember being a young reporter in Columbia, South Carolina at WIS-TV and working, you know, 16 hour days, six days a week, sometimes wondering if it was worth it, but in the end hard work pays off," Melvin said in a 2025 interview for NBCUniversal. The anchor added that hard work isn't the only ingredient in the recipe to success. "I've also learned along the way to be kind and nice to everyone in the newsroom, around the newsroom, and that's something that's served me," he said.

Kristen Welker has also risen the ranks from local news anchor to nation-wide sensation. After working at a number of local news stations in multiple states, Welker began her career with NBC in 2010 as an anchor for NBC News. She was soon recognized for her talent, earning an Emmy for her coverage of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. While at NBC, Welker has covered other major news stories, and she's covered multiple presidential elections and moderated multiple presidential debates. In 2020, Welker's debate performance was highly praised, with some outlets saying the winner wasn't one of the candidates, but rather Welker. In 2023, Welker stepped into another highly coveted role: moderator of "Meet the Press."

While Welker is known for her work as a reporter and her masterful handling of presidential candidates, she's also hailed for her skills as an interviewer. She has sat down with all sorts of notable politicians, like Donald Trump and Zohran Mamdani, as well as foreign leaders like Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel. "The best advice I ever received on interviewing is that interviewing is not about talking, it's not about asking — it's about listening," Welker said in a 2025 interview with NBCU Academy. "If you are armed with the facts, if you're armed with a good set of questions and follow-up questions, then when you hear something really significant, you're present and you're in the moment and ready to follow up," she added.

Sheinelle Jones joined NBC News in 2014, starting her tenure at the network as a correspondent for "Today" and an anchor on "Weekend Today." Compared to some of her co-hosts, Jones is still rather new at her job, but her loyalty to the network has paid off, and now Jones is the co-host of the fourth hour of "Today," "Today with Jenna & Sheinelle." Jones joined Jenna Bush Hager as permanent co-host of the slot after Hoda Kotb stepped down and Hager spent about a year searching for a new co-host.

Jones' promotion comes after personal tragedy. In 2025, Jones' husband, Uche Ojeh, died following a brain cancer diagnosis. The news anchor took a leave of absence from NBC to care for her husband in his final days, and she came back to the network a few months after his death. Jones' return to work hasn't been easy. "People see me on TV and they think 'Oh, she's better.' It's like, 'Oh, no no. I'm not better.' Every day, it's like swimming through mud," Jones said in an interview with People. "I've had to really do the work. Empathy is my superpower now, and I recognize that I hold two things: I hold my grief, and I also hold this joy. I said it months ago, and I'll say it now: I am fighting for my joy," she added.

Many of Willie Geist's co-hosts have never not been laser focused on TV journalism, but his path was a little different. Before joining "Morning Joe" as a co-host in 2007, Geist was a producer, most notably of "The Situation with Tucker Carlson," and prior to that he was an editor at CNN Sports Illustrated. But audiences liked Geist on "Morning Joe," and his work there garnered him more on-screen opportunities, eventually leading him to where he is now — co-host of "Today" and host of "Sunday Today with Willie Geist."

In between Geist's career milestones, of course, was lots of hard work, as well as some patience. "It takes time. Nothing happens overnight. And I think we're able now, 10 years, to look back and say, 'It's been worth it. It's been a blast,'" Geist said in a 2026 interview with People in honor of the 10th anniversary of his Sunday series. The TV host also had to convince his family to let him take on the opportunity to host "Sunday Today," which could've been a Saturday gig, too. "I couldn't figure out how to make seven days a week work with young children and a wife and expectations of being around my family, which is fair. So, I got them down to Sunday," Geist noted.

Carson Daly got his start in showbiz in the world of radio after he dropped out of college. He eventually worked his way up from intern to on-air host. His work on Los Angeles radio station KROQ got him noticed by MTV, and after balancing both radio and TV, Daly fully dove into television, becoming a nationally recognized personality as the host of the MTV music video countdown series "Total Request Live," or "TRL." From there, Daly joined the NBC umbrella, and in 2011 he became the host of "The Voice," which he still hosts today. Daly has also co-hosted "Today" since 2013.

Although "The Voice" is a huge success and "Today" is routinely watched by millions of viewers, "TRL" remains one of Daly's career highlights. In 2023, Daly celebrated the show's 25th anniversary. "['TRL'] was kind of the first time this sort of generation could come home and see themselves on TV and was just on every day and it was kind of there for them," Daly said in an interview with Today. Daly acknowledged that "TRL" was often compared to "Bandstand" when the former was on air, and he noted how quickly the show grew. "When we first started the show it was like two kids holding up signs. And then two months later, it was 100 kids, and then it became thousands and thousands of kids from all over the world, holding up signs and shutting down Times Square," Daly said.

Tom Llamas has been back and forth with NBC. Now the host of "NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas," as well as an occasional co-host of "Today," Llamas did host and co-host some series, including "Good Morning America" and "ABC World News Tonight "Weekend," on ABC for a while in the 2010s. Llamas returned to NBC in 2021, and since then he's covered major events like the 2024 presidential election, the war in Ukraine, and the Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games.

Llamas has achieved career milestones many only dream of, and he's done so at multiple networks. In a 2026 interview with Fortune, the TV journalist expressed that he believes he got where he is today thanks to his relentless work ethic. "You don't have to be the smartest person in the room. But if you work the hardest, you will succeed," Llamas said. He also encouraged others to ask for the opportunities rather than waiting for them to fall in their lap. "If you don't ask, you don't get. If you want something, ask for it. The worst thing that you're gonna be told is no," he said.