Brian Williams Is a Reporter Again
Brian Williams Says He's Leaving NBC News
The former anchor of "NBC Nightly News" rehabilitated his tarnished paradigm as the host of a popular 11 p.m. show on MSNBC.
Brian Williams, the foursquare-jawed news anchor laid low by a fabulism scandal who mounted a career comeback with a popular 11 p.chiliad. talk show on MSNBC, appear on Tuesday that he would stride down from his program after a five-year run and depart NBC News entirely at the end of the year.
The exit of Mr. Williams, whose contract is ready to expire next calendar month, comes amid a ratings decline in the cable news industry and restlessness among some of MSNBC's star personnel. Rachel Maddow, the network'southward top-rated anchor, is expected to refocus soon on projects outside her nightly prime number-time show, although she has announced no formal plans.
"Following much reflection, and after 28 years with the company, I have decided to leave NBC upon the completion of my current contract in December," Mr. Williams wrote in a statement on Tuesday. "I have been truly blessed. I have been allowed to spend almost half of my life with 1 company. NBC is a part of me and e'er will exist."
Mr. Williams revealed no immediate plans for a new on-air part. "This is the end of a chapter and the get-go of some other," he wrote. "There are many things I want to do, and I'll pop up once more somewhere."
A person familiar with Mr. Williams's decision-making who requested anonymity to share private conversations said the anchor would consider his options and hoped to return to television set or another media platform soon.
Rashida Jones, the president of MSNBC, wrote in a note to staff on Tuesday that Mr. Williams "has informed us he would like to take the coming months to spend time with his family."
"We and our viewers will miss his penetrating questions and thoughtful commentary," she wrote.
For Mr. Williams, 62, the departure from NBC News, the division that houses MSNBC, is another twist in a career that scaled the heights of succeeding Tom Brokaw as the anchor of the "NBC Nightly News" to the lows of a six-calendar month unpaid intermission in 2015, afterward he acknowledged exaggerating an anecdote about a helicopter ride in Iraq.
His credibility every bit a journalist tarnished, Mr. Williams returned to idiot box equally a breaking news anchor at MSNBC before he and Andrew Lack, and so the chairman of NBC News and a close friend, hatched an thought over an Italian dinner for a comeback vehicle. "The 11th Hour" was designed every bit a late-night evidence mixing news and chat nearly the news, with Mr. Williams as a genial ringleader — function David Brinkley, office Dick Cavett.
It debuted at the height of the 2022 presidential election and quickly found an audition. Left-leaning viewers shocked by the ballot of Donald J. Trump as president were flocking to MSNBC, and they seemed to forgive Mr. Williams'due south by transgressions. In May 2017, "11th Hr" scored bigger ratings than its rivals at CNN and Fob News, giving MSNBC its outset outright win in the 11 p.m. time slot since 2001. (The testify vanquish CNN just lost to Fox News in total viewers during the near recent quarter.)
Mr. Williams, who joined NBC News in 1993, has not expressed much interest in returning to a traditional nightly evening newscast, according to the person familiar with his thinking. That would seem to rule out a gig similar anchoring the "CBS Evening News," whose anchor, Norah O'Donnell, is on a contract that expires next year.
Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN, has been seeking high-wattage talent for a new streaming service, CNN+, which is set to start in 2022. Mr. Zucker approached Ms. Maddow about a job before she decided to renew her bargain at MSNBC, a word first reported by Puck News.
The loss of Mr. Williams means MSNBC will have to fill his weeknight slot and possibly cull some other anchor to assistance pb coverage of election dark and other big political events. In 2020, Mr. Williams oft co-anchored the cablevision network'due south political broadcasts with Ms. Maddow and another network star, Nicolle Wallace.
Before his break in 2015, Mr. Williams made frequent appearances away from the anchor desk. He hosted an episode of "Saturday Night Live" in 2007, appeared on the sitcom "xxx Stone," and was a go-to guest on late-night shows hosted by David Letterman, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon.
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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/business/media/brian-williams-msnbc.html
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