Chuck Todd to leave 'Meet the Press'

NBC anchor Chuck Todd will leave “Meet the Press,” after nine years hosting the show, he announced Sunday.

"I'd rather leave a little bit too soon, than stay a tad bit too long," Todd said during the telecast Sunday. “I’ve watched too many friends and family let work consume them before it was too late."

Todd will be replaced by Kristen Welker, NBC’s co-chief White House correspondent. He will remain at NBC as a chief political analyst, the network reported.

Todd, 51, joined NBC News as the network's political director in 2007 and has hosted "Meet the Press," the network's signature Sunday show, since 2014, succeeding David Gregory.

Todd "established himself as a trusted authority on all things politics — from consequential presidential and national elections to local and congressional races across the country," NBC News President of Editorial Rebecca Blumenstein and NBC News Senior Vice President of Politics Carrie Budoff Brown wrote in a memo Sunday.

In his new role, he will continue to be "a leading voice at NBC News for politics, both in the field and for important events," they said in the memo.

"[Todd] has been a mentor and friend since my first day at @NBCNews," Welker posted on Twitter on Sunday. "I’ve learned so much from sitting with him at the anchor desk and simply experiencing his passion for politics. I'm humbled and grateful to take the baton and continue to build on the legacy of @MeetThePress."

Welker, who received national praise for her performance moderating the second presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2020, is the second woman and the first Black journalist to moderate “Meet the Press,” a show which dates back to November 1947. The first woman to host the show was Martha Rountree, from its debut in 1947 until 1953.

Welker is the "right person" for the job, Todd said Sunday. "This is always how I hoped this would end for me. That I'd be passing the baton to her."

He'll being doing just that in September, he said.