When analyzing the untold reality of Craig Melvin, there’s so much to think about. A veteran journalist with NBC Information, Melvin has been a well-recognized face to viewers of NBC’s flagship morning present, “Immediately,” even earlier than he formally joined the present in 2018. In late 2024, there was a giant shakeup when he and the remainder of the “Immediately” gang realized they’d be bidding farewell to Hoda Kotb, whose resolution to depart the present was reportedly messier than anybody thought.

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At the moment, Melvin acquired a large vote of confidence from NBC when he was tapped to take Kotb’s spot on the anchor desk, co-hosting the primary two hours of “Immediately” alongside Savannah Guthrie. “The bigger employees discovered this morning, and folks broke into applause,” Guthrie instructed “Immediately” viewers when asserting the information. “This is without doubt one of the hottest choices NBC Information has ever made!” Since taking up Kotb’s spot in January 2025, followers have actually embraced Melvin in his new position, but they might not be conscious that there’s much more to him than the smiling visage beaming from tv screens every morning.

His journey from a tough childhood to the heights of community information has been an enchanting journey, and it is from over. To search out out extra, learn on to expertise the transformation of Hoda Kotb’s “Immediately” present alternative, Craig Melvin.

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Craig Melvin was born in 1979 in Columbia, South Carolina. His father, Lawrence Melvin, had a tough historical past. Lawrence’s mom was serving a stint in jail when Craig’s father was born, coming into the world behind bards. As a father to the long run newscaster, he wasn’t round so much when Craig was rising up attributable to varied addictions.

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Craig went on to chronicle their tough relationship in his 2021 e-book, “Pops: Studying to Be a Son and a Father,” and he did not gloss over any of the extra disturbing particulars. As Craig wrote, his father was such an absent, rare presence in his life that the teenager’s pals got here up with the nickname “Ghost” for his dad. “The nickname actually bugged me,” Melvin wrote in his e-book (by way of Immediately). “Most of my different pals, their dads had been current. I had written mine off … He was like a ghost: there, however not there.” He did, nevertheless, handle to rack up large playing money owed, forcing Craig’s mom, Betty Jo Melvin, to take a number of jobs to maintain the household afloat.

As he defined throughout a 2021 interview with “Immediately,” it was his mom, Betty Jo Melvin, who’s the true hero in his life. “For her, I feel it was arduous as a result of the title of the e-book is ‘Pops.’ And the fact is, for many of my life, she performed the position of Mother AND Pops,” he stated. “And the fact is, I’d not be the place I’m professionally and personally had it not been for my mom.”

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Whereas rising up, Craig Melvin developed an curiosity in tv information. The truth is, he was nonetheless a scholar at Columbia Excessive College when he noticed a TV industrial searching for a teenaged “Our Era” reporter for WIS Information 10. He utilized for the job and was employed to cowl information from a teen perspective for the native NBC affiliate. “He rapidly established himself as somebody with distinctive expertise,” former WIS information director Randy Covington instructed The Day by day Gamecock. “We had a variety of good ‘Our Era’ reporters, however Craig, arguably, was the very best.”

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In accordance with Covington, even at that early level in his journalistic profession, Melvin’s segments had been as skilled as these of his grown-up colleagues. “So we kind of made an unorthodox resolution,” he recalled. “We entered this highschool journalist’s work into the state AP competitors.” That gamble paid off; in 1996, Melvin gained an Related Press award for a narrative about his favourite trainer’s progressive instructional methods, changing into one of many award’s youngest-ever winners.

Trying again, Melvin credit Covington, and the immense religion he positioned in an unproven teenager, for the intense future he would go on to expertise as a journalist. “Randy rolled the cube on a child with out a journalism diploma, whose coaching at this level was very restricted however who was keen and hungry,” Melvin stated. “I will probably be eternally indebted to him.”

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After graduating from highschool, Craig Melvin was accepted by South Carolina’s Wofford School. Given his household’s precarious monetary scenario, nevertheless, postsecondary training wasn’t a given for him. “I used to be a scholarship child,” Melvin recalled in an interview with Wofford School. “I had a variety of assist going to varsity. There wasn’t some huge cash mendacity round for faculty.”

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Finding out authorities, Melvin maintained his ties with WIS 10, spending his summer time holidays working part-time for the station. After he graduated, Melvin’s first cease was WIS, the place then-news director Randy Covington gave him a job. Ultimately, he was promoted to affiliate producer of the early-morning information broadcast — which meant setting his alarm for 3 a.m. every weekday.

That led Melvin to the largest profession alternative so far, when he was chosen to co-anchor the WIS night newscast. “He was the youngest, rawest child on the air,” Charles Bierbauer, Wofford’s dean of the School of Mass Communications and Data Research, instructed The Day by day Gamecock. “However he had character, smarts and the flexibility to inform a narrative, which is what tv and journalism is all about. I have been capable of watch him develop.”

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Having risen by means of the ranks so rapidly, new WIS 10 information anchor Craig Melvin had a lot to study his new position. He was lucky that he was capable of share the anchor desk with veteran WIS anchor Susan Aude, who turned a mentor to him. Along with co-anchoring the night information broadcast, he was tasked with being on-air for the 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. information, and likewise reported on quite a few tales within the subject — together with a fraught report through which he was smack-dab in the course of a hostage negotiation in a jail, and one other through which he drew consideration to the homelessness disaster by residing among the many homeless for a number of days.

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Throughout this time, Melvin additionally established some in style common options. These included his “College Swap” and “Trainer Swap” segments, through which college students and academics swapped positions at completely different colleges of vastly differing socioeconomic statuses. His work didn’t go unrecognized. In 2003 and 2005, he was a part of the staff to win regional Emmy Awards for finest newscast. Then, in 2006, he gained a regional Emmy as finest information anchor within the U.S. Southeast, whereas the next 12 months he was named South Carolina’s finest anchor by the South Carolina Broadcasters Affiliation.

“Recognition to your work is all the time nice, but it surely’s even higher if you’re acknowledged for work you get pleasure from a lot,” Melvin stated after his 2006 Emmy win, as reported by WIS. “Typically I really feel like pinching myself to verify that is all actual.”

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In 2008, Craig Melvin left WIS 10 to take a job at an even bigger market, serving as weekend anchor for WRC, the NBC affiliate in Washington, D.C. It was throughout this time that he met one other anchor on the station, Lindsay Czarniak. They turned pals, however Melvin wished to take that friendship to the subsequent stage. “I have to get to know her,” he remembered considering on the time, Melvin instructed The Washington Publish. Czarniak felt equally. “That night time once we met, there was one thing that clicked,” Czarniak instructed the newspaper. “It felt like being with the person who actually will get you and that you have recognized for a very, actually very long time.”

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The couple introduced their engagement in April 2011. Destiny, nevertheless, intervened the next month when Czarniak — a sports activities anchor at WRC — acquired a job supply from ESPN that may take her to Bristol, Connecticut. Only a few weeks later, Melvin was employed by cable information community MSNBC and can be reporting to work in New York Metropolis. The newlyweds relocated to Westport, Connecticut, with the 2 commuting about an hour per day to and from their respective jobs. “It was very nerve-racking as a result of [working at WRC] wasn’t only a job, it was a way of life and a household for each of us,” Czarniak stated. “But it surely’s been wonderful. As a result of we’re each in comparable conditions in other places, in order that we will each assist one another.”

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Craig Melvin had spent years coaching as a journalist on the job in native markets, first in South Carolina after which Washington, D.C. That every one led to his greatest break but when he was employed by MSNBC in 2011 as an anchor throughout the daytime, his first time anchoring to a nationwide viewers. His obligations additionally included contributing to NBC Information on all its varied platforms, together with the NBC community itself. “I am most excited concerning the prospect of anchoring breaking information, stay occasions, and interviewing information makers each day,” he instructed AdWeek. “Moreover, I will have the ability to get from behind the desk every now and then and canopy large tales from the entrance traces. I am thrilled concerning the new alternative.”

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Throughout his tenure at MSNBC, Melvin lined some large tales. These included the horrific Sandy Hook College taking pictures, each the Democratic and Republican Nationwide Conventions, the Asiana Airways 2014 crash, the George Zimmerman trial, a catastrophic twister in Oklahoma, and extra.

He was additionally a part of the printed staff despatched to Brazil in 2016 to cowl the summer time Olympic video games in Rio de Janeiro. For Melvin, that protection included interviewing then-Secretary of State John Kerry, who was available to attend the opening ceremony. Melvin additionally made information when he interviewed gold medalist swimmer Ryan Lochte after the revelation that he and different members of the swimming staff had faked their claims of being robbed.

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Only a few years after their wedding ceremony, Craig Melvin and spouse Lindsay Czarniak began a household. In 2014, the couple welcomed their first little one, a son they named Delano. They expanded their household in 2016 with the arrival of a daughter, Sybil “Sibby” Ann.

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Turning into a father left him essentially modified, but in addition offered a problem as he discovered the way to juggle his demanding job together with his parental obligations. Throughout an look on Southern Dwelling’s “Biscuits & Jam” podcast, Melvin defined why he determined to concentrate on the standard of the time he spent together with his children, reasonably than the amount. “So when I’m there, I am not simply bodily current, I’m emotionally current,” he stated. “I strive to verify my youngsters know that. I’ve additionally blocked out sure days and actions the place, except one thing horrible is going on on the earth, I am there.”

So severe is Melvin concerning the time he spends together with his household, his colleagues have come to understand that he is primarily off the grid throughout these occasions. “And individuals who work with me, they know that it doesn’t matter what that is — I name it useless time,” he stated. “I am unreachable and untouchable.”

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It is no secret that the general public has an insatiable urge for food for true crime — simply ask veteran “Dateline” host Keith Morrison, who’s guided viewers by means of numerous ugly murders for the reason that present’s debut in 1992. As a member of the NBC staff, Craig Melvin was tapped to anchor a derivative sequence, “Dateline: Secrets and techniques Uncovered,” which premiered in 2017. Whereas the present primarily repackaged tales from beforehand aired episodes, Melvin offered new commentary to introduce the segments.

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Talking with NBC 10 Philadelphia, Melvin addressed the hovering reputation of the true crime style, declaring the cred that “Dateline” had established. “We had been the originals,” Melvin declared. He additionally mused about why true crime had hit such a nerve with viewers and supplied his principle. “I feel that a variety of people who watch ‘Dateline,’ myself included, you turn into an armchair detective,” he stated. “From the very first few seconds that the present is on, you begin to assume like, ‘How’d they do it?’ Or, ‘Who did it?’  … You might be sucked in instantly. I feel that is one of many causes that the present itself has resonated with so many for therefore lengthy.”

Whereas Craig Melvin’s skilled life soared, he skilled some tragic information in his private life when his brother, Reverend Dr. Lawrence Melvin, was identified with stage 4 colon most cancers in 2016. That analysis led each brothers to turn into lively within the Colorectal Most cancers Alliance, a company that raises consciousness of colon most cancers, along with elevating cash for analysis.

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Sadly, Lawrence died in 2020 on the age of 43, and Craig believed that his brother should still be alive had he not shrugged off early warning indicators. “There have been stomach pains, there was blood within the stool, there was weight reduction that he simply dismissed as different issues,” Craig noticed in an interview with Individuals, noting that signs corresponding to these solely turn into apparent when the most cancers has unfold and that early detection is vital. “We all know that that is a type of cancers the place if it is found early sufficient, you get the colonoscopy, they see one thing, increase, they take it out proper there,” he added. “The issues come up if you let it go unchecked for not months, however years.”

Regardless of the apparent ache he skilled shedding his brother, Craig was decided to hold on his work with the alliance — to each honor his brother’s reminiscence and to forestall the illness from claiming others. “I’ve all the time thought that when horrible issues occur to you — and horrible issues occur to all of us in some unspecified time in the future — I feel that we’re all obligated to take the horrible issues and switch them into one thing constructive,” Craig defined.

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As Craig Melvin’s star ascended at MSNBC, head honchos at NBC Information had been maintaining their collective eyes on him. His visibility elevated when he started making appearances on “Immediately” as a fill-in for vacationing anchors, and he was finally employed to host the Saturday version of “Immediately.” In 2018, he introduced he can be stepping away from his Saturday slot. “For the higher a part of the previous 12 months, I’ve been pulling triple obligation right here at NBC Information,” instructed viewers, by way of Deadline. “It is so much for anybody, even somebody who loves what he does as a lot as I do.”

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Whereas Melvin did not get into specifics about what he can be doing subsequent, his announcement created buzz that he was being groomed for a everlasting place on the flagship weekday version. These rumors proved to be true when “Immediately” anchors Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie introduced on the air that Melvin can be becoming a member of them every weekday. “I am enthusiastic about this,” stated Melvin, who was sitting alongside them.

When the “Immediately” hour hosted by former Fox Information anchor Megyn Kelly was cancelled following her controversial Blackface feedback, Melvin, Kotb, and veteran “Immediately” climate man Al Roker took over her hour — and her studio. In the meantime, reviews maintained that Melvin’s ascension was immediately associated to the disturbing fall of longtime “Immediately” anchor Matt Lauer, which sadly mirrored the shady facet of “Immediately” and left an enormous gap for an anchor to fill. “The community is de facto excessive on him proper now: He is sensible, charming, good-looking and, maybe most significantly, a household man,” a supply instructed Web page Six, putting emphasis on these last two phrases to emphasise his distinction from Lauer.

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Extra tumult engulfed the favored morning present in late 2024 when beloved “Immediately” anchor Hoda Kotb — who’s had fairly the transformation herself – introduced she was exiting the present. Her last day, she revealed on the air, can be January 10, 2025. On the identical time, she additionally introduced that Craig Melvin can be her alternative as full-time co-anchor. Melvin responded together with his trademark humility. “I need to, clearly, thank NBC and the oldsters right here who deemed me worthy,” stated Melvin. “I’ve loved only a lifetime of blessings, and that is the newest in an extended line of blessings.”

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Melvin’s first day sitting in Kotb’s anchor chair proved to be much more emotional for him that he’d anticipated. That was as a result of his spouse, Lindsay Czarniak paid him a shock go to within the studio, accompanied by their two youngsters. Understandably, Melvin was past shocked to see his household within the studio. “After I left this morning, you guys had been all in mattress!” Melvin blurted out throughout the broadcast. “We faked it,” Czarniak replied with fun.

That stated, Melvin’s new gig led to a giant adjustment to his morning routine, forcing him to get up a half-hour sooner than he had been beforehand. “I will be leaving the home at 4:30 a.m. now, so I will be up at 3:45 a.m.,” Melvin instructed NBCUniversal. “Now that I am saying that out loud it sounds ridiculous!”

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