Now that Brian Williams is temporarily sidelined from “NBC Nightly News,” speculation among television insiders is growing about what the network will do if he does not return to the anchor chair.
Lester Holt, filling in for Williams, mentioned on Monday’s edition that the anchor was taking “several days off this broadcast amid questions over how he recalled certain stories he covered.”
NBC News is hoping it really is just a few days. An anchor transition is the least enviable task any news division faces.
Williams, who in December had renewed his contract with NBC, voluntarily stepped away as the network completes an internal investigation into claims that he made misleading statements about coming under attack while reporting on the 2003 Iraq invasion. Management is also looking into possible discrepancies in his 2005 coverage of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. As NBC’s top brass determine the anchor’s future, how a potential exit by Williams would play out also has to be in their calculations.
“They have to be thinking about it,” former ABC News President David Westin said. “Succession is always very difficult. It’s a lot harder than it looks. NBC thought they had Brian for a quite a few years. They never anticipated they would have this problem.”
NBC would have little choice but to remove him from the anchor chair if other on-air false statements turn up, according to an NBC executive familiar with the discussions but not authorized to speak publicly.
If untruthful statements were during talk-show appearances and other forums, executives will have to weigh how much the controversy has damaged the news division’s image.
NBC will also closely follow viewer reaction. Williams’ broadcast saw a 21 percent drop in viewers last Friday when ratings were compared to the average of the previous four days. Another executive at NBC News who was not authorized to speak publicly said there is no reason for concern yet as “Nightly” typically goes down more than its competitors on Friday, the lowest-rated night for evening newscasts. ABC World News Tonight won Friday night by 450,000 viewers. The previous Friday before the Williams story broke, the lead was 400,000. Williams’ audience of 8 million viewers was off about 100,000 from the previous Friday, based on preliminary Nielsen numbers.
If a change has to be made, the easiest move is for NBC News to install Holt, the weekend anchor. Holt usually maintains Williams’ ratings during the weekdays when he fills in.
If Holt is named as the permanent replacement, he would be the first African-American solo anchor of a network evening newscast.
