NBC News

Many viewers believe Brian Williams deserves a second chance on the NBC Nightly News — but a significant portion don’t think he’ll be able to regain his credibility. That’s according to a new survey by consulting firm Magid Associates, conducted in the wake of Williams’ six-month suspension last week.

NBC’s Brian Williams has been a frequent guest on late-night talk shows and sitcoms. But that’s nothing new; legends in journalism such as Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow made cameos on comedy shows, too. The Washington Post‘s Scott Higham explains how Williams followed in their footsteps, and then some.

Along with anchoring NBC Nightly News, perhaps the biggest job in television news, Lester Holt will also continue to helm the weekend edition of NBC Nightly News and host Dateline, reminding some that he was once nicknamed Iron Pants for his willingness to work seemingly nonstop.

By Friday night, Holt will have anchored NBC’s nightly newscast for seven days in a row. And no one will be filling in for him this weekend.

Colt reported from Asia and around the world for NBC News before joining two humanitarian agencies. He was 58.

Although NBC Universal chief Steve Burke says his chief anchor deserves a second chance, whether he actually gets one is another question. Brian Williams’ six-month suspension offers reasons for the split to become permanent.

In the four years since CEO Brian Roberts called NBC News “the crown jewel of Comcast,” the division has been fraught with problems including Brian Williams’ suspension and Meet the Press tanking in the ratings.

There have been two versions of Brian Williams. One is an Emmy-winning, sober, talented anchor on the NBC Nightly News and the other is a funny, urbane celebrity who hosts Saturday Night Live, slow-jams the news with Jimmy Fallon and crushes it in every speech and public appearance he makes. It’s all good until it isn’t.

In a memo Saturday to NBC News staff that was released by the network, the anchorman said that as managing editor of NBC Nightly News he is taking himself off the broadcast for several days. Lester Holt will fill in, Williams said.

CNN’s Brian Stelter interviewed helicopter pilot Rich Krell, who said Thursday that the aircraft was hit by small arms fire, although not the grenade that Williams had one time claimed. But Friday, Krell, whose account was contradicted by other soldiers, is now saying that he is questioning his own memories.

The plot is thickening when it comes to Brian Williams’ apology stemming from his account of a 2003 helicopter flight in Iraq. One day after Williams apologized for having falsely represented over the years that his chopper came under RPG fire, the helicopter’s pilot, Rich Krell, said the aircraft did come under fire — just not under RPG fire.

Reiss has been serving as acting executive producer since Chuck Todd took over in September, 2014.

NBC News is turning to a name from the past to help lead Today into the future. Noah Oppenheim, a senior producer of the morning program when it was No. 1 in the ratings, is returning as the top executive in charge of the entire editorial operation, according to NBC News executives familiar with the plan. Oppenheim will fill the role that was briefly occupied by Jamie Horowitz, the onetime ESPN programming whiz who was fired in November shortly after he took the NBC job.

Over two and a half years after she was pushed aside from The Today Show, Ann Curry is leaving NBC News. A senior NBC exec confirmed the unsurprising departure. The former morning show co-host was very publicly pink slipped from Today on June 28, 2012, after just over a year on the sofa with Matt Lauer.

NBC News is partially copping to its mistake Wednesday when it reported that one of the suspects in the Paris attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo had been killed and two others were taken into custody – neither of which occurred. In a statement Wednesday night, the organization is putting the responsibility on the shoulders of its American government sources.

Veteran NBC newsman Tom Brokaw announced Sunday that, after months of chemotherapy, he soon will begin a drug maintenance program. Sharing with colleagues what he called “very encouraging news,” Brokaw’s internal memo noted that a year ago his future was “more uncertain than I cared to acknowledge.”

NBC News said it has signed Brian Williams, the anchor of its evening newscast and the public face of the NBCUniversal-owned unit, to a new long-term deal. No financial terms were offered, but the Los Angeles Times reported that the pact could be for as much as five years, and that Williams could receive as much as $10 million per year.

Patricia Fili-Krushel, Deborah Turness and the recently ousted Jamie Horowitz all have impressive-sounding titles, but it would be difficult in anything but the most bureaucratic speak to say what they actually do.

The appointment yesterday of Janelle Rodriguez to the position of SVP editorial at NBC News caps off a tumultuous couple of months on the digital floors at the Peacock network, which has seen some of its best and brightest walk out the door. The appointment of Rodriguez, a CNN stalwart, to run editorial for both television and digital sends a clear message to the troops: “integration” means television people back in charge of digital, which, in the case of NBCNews.com, signals a sad end to what had been an inspiring couple of years.

NBC News has found a new editorial exec in CNN’s Janelle Rodriguez. NBC News chief Deborah Turness alerted staff in a Tuesday memo that Rodriguez would be joining in January, serving in the new role of senior VP of editorial.

NBC News medical reporter Nancy Snyderman said of her violating Ebola quarantine procedures: “Good people make mistakes and I stepped outside the boundaries of what I promised to do and what the public expected of me, and for that I’m sorry.”

A network executive who spoke on condition of anonymity because it was a personnel matter said Tuesday that Snyderman will report tomorrow on a medical issue for the Today show and NBC’s Nightly News.

NBC News said Brian Williams would anchor the unit’s signature evening newscast live from Ferguson, Mo., while CNN said it would stay live throughout primetime rather than running its usual Tuesday documentary, two signals that events surrounding the recent grand jury verdict in the death of teenager Michael Brown continues to absorb the national focus.

The show is in upheaval, with rumors flying that co-hosts are out and behind-the-scenes turnover. Move No. 1: Stop the leaks. Move No. 2: Find a new boss.

New explosive details reveal that a “manifesto” by Jamie Horowitz outlining his desire to overhaul on-air team prompted Natalie Morales, Willie Geist and colleagues to outmaneuver the executive, leading to his firing after 78 days on the job

In a new round of turmoil at the long-roiling NBC morning show Today, Jamie Horowitz, a former ESPN executive brought in 10 weeks ago to supervise the show, was fired yesterday after what several people at the network said was a series of conflicts with members of the show’s staff as well as the management of NBC News. In a memo sent to the staff yesterday evening, Deborah Turness, the president of NBC News, said that she and Horowitz “have come to the conclusion that this is not the right fit.”

President Barack Obama named 19 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Monday. NBC News’ Tom Brokaw, Meryl Streep and Stevie Wonder were among those named to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor. The White House awards ceremony is Nov. 24.

NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Brokaw will take NBC Sports Network viewers with him on a trip to his native South Dakota for pheasant hunting season, a special that could […]

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s a story important enough for NBC’s “Nightly News”: Weather forecaster Mike Seidel did not relieve himself in the snow. NBC’s Brian Williams said on Monday’s […]

The mandatory Ebola-related quarantine is over, but Dr. Nancy Snyderman and the crew members who traveled to Liberia with her are not coming back to work yet. In an internal memorandum on Wednesday, NBC News president Deborah Turness said the crew would be taking some more time off work, adding, “We very much look forward to their return next month.”

NBC News freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who was diagnosed with Ebola earlier this month, has been declared free of the deadly virus by a hospital, according to a tweet from NBC Nightly News.

An admitted lapse in the quarantine, combined with a curiously imprecise explanation, unleashed a furious response. NBC must now decide whether its chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman’s credibility is too damaged for her to continue reporting on Ebola or other medical issues and, if so, for how long.

News ratings for the week beginning Sept. 29 were affected by a software error that created miscalculations of television viewership dating back to last March, so the previously announced victory of ABC’s World News Tonight last week over NBC’s Nightly News was incorrect.

NBC chief medical editor and correspondent Dr. Nancy Snyderman apologized for violating quarantine guidelines after traveling to Liberia to cover the Ebola outbreak.