NBC's Brian Williams will replace Brokaw

NBC's Brian Williams
will replace Brokaw

Takes top anchor slot in 2004 after transition

By Jeff Bercovici

    NBC pulled off a nifty double-play yesterday, locking in "Nightly News" anchor Tom Brokaw through November 2004 and confirming MSNBC anchor Brian Williams as his successor.
    The arrangement allows the network to postpone the pain of losing its most recognizable personality and avoid the distraction of having to conduct a public search for a replacement.
    In the meantime, Williams will disappear from MSNBC in favor of a concentrated presence on CNBC and more high-profile reporting assignments for NBC News.
    The goal will be to ease the transition in the hopes of losing as few viewers as possible. While Brokaw is under increasing challenge from ABC's Peter Jennings, NBC still holds the lead in overall viewers, and it remains substantially ahead in viewers 18-49.
     Brokaw, 62, has anchored "Nightly News" since taking over for John Chancellor in 1983.
    Last year at this time, he seemed likely to be the first of the current crop of anchors to step down. He was said to be looking forward to retirement as a chance to do more traveling and work on books like his bestselling "The Greatest Generation."
    But after Sept. 11 reawakened Americans to the importance of hard news, Brokaw reconsidered.
    After anchoring NBC's coverage of the 2004 presidential election, he will retire from "Nightly News," although he will continue contributing to primetime specials.
    Williams, 43, has been looked on as a potential successor since he came to NBC in 1993 from WCBS-TV, the New York City CBS affiliate.
    But doubts arose last summer after Williams, filling in for Brokaw in the first week of his long vacation, piloted "Nightly News" to its lowest ratings in 10 years.
    Another seeming indication that Williams had lost favor with network brass came when NBC, rearranging its schedule this past spring, moved "The News with Brian Williams" from its 8 p.m. slot to a less desirable 7 p.m. berth.
    In the first hour of primetime, "The News," which averaged 375,000 viewers in the first three months of 2002, was getting clobbered by "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News, which averaged 2 million viewers.
   Even CNN, which had no permanent 8 p.m. offering, averaged 700,000 viewers.
    But rather than a slap at Williams, it appears the move was an acknowledgment that his understated delivery is at odds with MSNBC's shift towards a more opinion-driven, confrontational format.
   At some point this summer, "The News," which now airs concurrently on MSNBC and CNBC, will depart from MSNBC entirely. NBC executives reportedly felt the show's a better fit for CNBC's audience and was suffering from dual-network exposure.
   In the meantime, Williams will undergo some grooming, the chief purpose of which will be to firm up his reporting background with more high-profile assignments for "Nightly News."
    Although Brokaw is the youngest of the Big Three networks' anchors, neither ABC's Peter Jennings nor CBS's Dan Rather has announced plans to retire.
     Rather, 70, is reportedly close to a new deal with the network that will keep him on through 2006, although it's unlikely he’ll continue to anchor "Evening News" for all that time.
    Jennings' contract runs out this summer. Negotiating a new one, ABC has reportedly asked him to accept a reduction in his $10 million-a-year salary.

-Jeff Bercovici is a staff writer for Media Life

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