Peter Alexander ended his final Saturday on the Today show the way he has started hundreds of Saturdays over the past seven years, at the Studio 1A anchor desk in 30 Rock, looking into the camera.
This time he was saying goodbye.
Alexander, 49, announced live on Saturday morning that he is leaving NBC News after 22 years at the network.
He cited family as the central reason, two daughters, Ava, 12, and Emma, 10, and a job structure that has required him to leave his Washington, D.C. home every Friday night to fly to New York for weekend broadcasts while also serving as the network’s chief White House correspondent during the week.
He told viewers he has been away from home more than 80 nights in the past seven months and more than 200 Friday nights over the past seven years.
“So in this limited window before my daughters lose interest in hanging out with me,” Alexander said on air, his voice catching, “I’m eager to carve out a better balance between my personal and professional lives and to challenge myself with something new.”
Alexander is expected to join MS NOW, the cable network formerly known as MSNBC, rebranded after being spun off from Comcast into a separate company called Versant in November 2025 as an anchor and chief national correspondent.
The LA Times first reported his destination. Alexander did not mention it on air. A representative for MS NOW declined comment.
What Did Alexander Say On Air?
The on-air farewell was emotional. Alexander has anchored Saturday Today since October 2018 and has been a fixture at the White House briefing room since 2012.
His co-anchor Laura Jarrett, who joined the Saturday desk in September 2023, addressed him directly.
“Peter: We love you, we are going to miss you,” Jarrett said. “You are a brilliant journalist. You are a good and decent man, and you are an extraordinary father. You only get one shot to be Ava and Emma’s dad — they are lucky to have you as their father.”
Alexander spoke of what the show meant to him, not abstractly, but specifically. “It’s hard to believe, but I have been part of the NBC family for longer than I’ve had my own family,” he said. “Studio 1A, being right here, with this team and with all the folks you don’t see on TV, this is literally my happy place.”
NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Chloe Arensberg and weekend Today executive producer Matt Carluccio issued a memo to staff, “Peter has been a trusted presence with great range across NBC News, and a friend to so many across the Washington Bureau, Today and the broader NBC News team. We are grateful for all his contributions and wish him the best.”
The Career He’s Leaving Behind
Alexander joined NBC News in June 2004 as a national correspondent after working at local stations including KCPQ-TV in Seattle, KHQ-TV in Spokane, and WKYT-TV in Lexington.
He was 27. The break that launched his NBC career came in September 2004 when he secured an interview with then-Cuban President Fidel Castro during Hurricane Ivan, at the time a significant get for a new network correspondent.
From there the career expanded aggressively. He covered Iraq’s 2005 parliamentary election from the ground.
He was in Pakistan for the death of Osama bin Laden. He reported from Indonesia after the 2004 tsunami and from Baghdad multiple times.
He covered the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005 and was nominated for an Emmy for his participation in NBC’s special report on it.
He anchored live coverage of the “Miracle on the Hudson,” the emergency water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in 2009, and the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007.
Alongside straight news, he served as an NBC Sports host at four Olympics. Beijing in 2008, Vancouver in 2010, Rio in 2016, and Milan for the 2026 Winter Games.
He told ASU News in 2020 that he “never imagined being a political reporter,” that the White House assignment felt foreign when it began.
His first White House stint came during President Obama’s second term, from 2012 to 2014.
After a period as a national correspondent, he returned to the beat in January 2017 for the first Trump administration.
In January 2021 he was named co-chief White House correspondent alongside Kristen Welker. When Welker was elevated to moderator of Meet the Press, Alexander became NBC’s sole chief White House correspondent, the role he has held until today.
Through all of it, he had a recurring antagonist. Trump publicly attacked him repeatedly from the podium and in social media posts.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Alexander asked Trump, “What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now who are scared?” Trump responded with a lengthy attack on Alexander personally.
In May 2025, Alexander asked Trump about accepting a gifted aircraft from the Qatari royal family during a press conference with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Trump called Alexander a “terrible person” and went on an extended rant about him and NBC News on live television. Alexander kept asking questions.
He described the pace of the first Trump White House in a 2022 interview with Variety as “a 24-hour news cycle every 24 minutes.”
Under Biden, he noted that a single White House background call for reporters could run 45 minutes and generate 25 pages of notes.
The Context Behind The Departure
The family explanation Alexander gave on air is real and documented. The logistics of his dual role, Washington correspondent Monday through Friday, New York anchor Saturday morning, have been an ongoing strain.
His wife, Alison Starling, is a television anchor in Washington, D.C. Their daughters are in school there. Commuting to New York every weekend for seven years while also covering the White House for five days a week is an objective grind.
But Variety reported Saturday, citing two people familiar with the matter, that Alexander had in recent months been expressing a desire for new challenges, and that the internal landscape at NBC had limited his options.
Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin are firmly established at weekday Today. Tom Llamas holds the NBC Nightly News anchor chair.
Kristen Welker is the moderator of Meet the Press. There were not many upward moves available inside NBC News for a correspondent of Alexander’s seniority.
The comparison to Tom Llamas is instructive. Llamas left ABC News in 2021 partly because David Muir was firmly entrenched as the weekday anchor of ABC World News Tonight, leaving no path upward.
Llamas moved to NBC and eventually succeeded Lester Holt at Nightly News. Alexander appears to be making a similar calculation in the other direction, moving from NBC News to MS NOW, which operates independently of NBC following the Versant spinoff, and which has an open 11 a.m. weekday anchor slot.
MS NOW has been rebuilding its daytime schedule. Stephanie Ruhle and Alicia Menendez recently received expanded two-hour daytime shifts.
The 11 a.m. position had been held by Ana Cabrera before the lineup overhaul. Alexander fills that slot and comes with name recognition and a fifteen-year record in the White House briefing room.
His deal with Versant reportedly includes potential contributions to sports coverage across the company’s other cable properties, USA Network and the Golf Channel, which expands his portfolio beyond straight news and connects to his Olympics hosting background.
What Comes Next At NBC?
NBC News said it expects to rely on various staffers to fill Alexander’s roles during an interim period. Laura Jarrett will continue anchoring Saturday Today. No replacement has been named.
The Washington bureau will absorb his White House correspondent duties in the interim while the network determines its next move.
Alexander celebrated his 20th anniversary at NBC in August 2024 with a tribute segment on Today.
He described walking into the White House for the first time as a correspondent as feeling like “angelic music was played.” He said he was grateful for every part of it.
He is leaving at 49. He has two daughters who are 12 and 10. He is going somewhere he can stay in one city and be home on Friday nights.
“I’m so grateful,” he said on Saturday morning, for what turned out to be the last time from that desk.
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