Atlanta-based NBC News reporter Blayne Alexander joins ‘Dateline’

Atlanta-based NBC News reporter Blayne Alexander has been named a correspondent for “Dateline NBC,” the long-running true crime series.

Alexander, a mother of two daughters, will join anchor Lester Holt and fellow correspondents Andrea Canning, Josh Mankiewicz, Keith Morrison and Dennis Murphy following maternity leave.

“She’s smart, she’s beautiful, she’s kind,” said Canning on the “Today” show Tuesday morning.

“She’s going to crush this job,” said Mankiewicz. “She’s a pro.”

“This is a journalist’s dream,” Alexander said. “I’ve been watching ‘Dateline’ since I was a little girl. To be part of this institution just means everything.”

Alexander was an 11Alive reporter from 2011 and 2017 before joining NBC News Channel, the affiliate service for NBC News out of Washington, D.C., from 2017 to 2019. She then moved to NBC News and returned to Atlanta in 2019.

Her reports over the past five years have been seen on “Today,” “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt,” NBC News NOW and NBCNews.com. She has covered subjects ranging from the 2020 and 2022 elections, the COVID-19 epidemic and nationwide protests around racial injustice. She also covered the Fulton County investigation and indictment of former President Donald Trump in Georgia.

“Dateline,” which recently began its 33rd season, has an unusually stable correspondent lineup. This is the first change to the show since Natalie Morales ended her brief time on the show in 2021. Morrison, Mankiewicz and Murphy joined the show in the 1990s when it covered multiple topics on top of crime while Canning arrived in 2012.

Alexander’s first stories will air in early 2025 and she will remain in Atlanta, a spokeswoman said.

Get all the news about the Atlanta Braves delivered each morning. Sign up for Braves Report.