Brian Williams to succeed Tom Brokaw @NBC in '04

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The NBC television network on Tuesday said Brian Williams of its MSNBC cable affiliate will take over from Tom Brokaw as anchor of the network's "NBC Nightly News" broadcast, one of the highest profile positions in television news, following the 2004 U.S. presidential election.

Williams, the anchor of MSNBC's cable news network who often fills in for Brokaw, has long been expected to succeed Brokaw, who has been the sole anchor of "NBC Nightly News" since 1983.

Brokaw, 62, will remain as anchor through the election and continue to contribute to the news program thereafter.

Terms of the their agreements were not publicly disclosed.

NBC is owned by blue chip conglomerate General Electric Co.

He's retiring at quite a young age, I reckon. Isn't Dan Rather about 104?

Anyway, I hardly think this one will shock the nation. Didn't everyone already know that Williams was going to succeed him?

Personally, I don't like him and I don't like NBC Nightly News. There's more hard news on Nickelodeon than Nightly News, it's terrible. There are those stupid things like "Home of the Brave" and "The Fleecing of America". Urgh.

Brian Williams is just a bit annoying for my tastes. His voice seems a bit too whiney and, quite frankly, he is not a patch on Mr Jennings.

I'd give my vote to that tree bloke - the one who does MSNBC. *Goes to find names of MSNBC presenters...* Forrest Sawyer, that's him. He is very relaxed and very calm.

What about John Siegenthaler?

He's the weekend presenter of NBC Nightly News. Oddly enough, he does the whole show sitting down on Saturdays and Sundays.

Anyway, he's not as annoying as Brokaw or Williams IMO. He should get a crack at hosting Nightly News for a little bit at least.

Is it customary for all weekend news presenters to have stupid names?

I mean, Thaliass Assurass, or someone like that does CBS News.

Anyway, we never get to see the weekend NBC bulletins because CNBC Europe doesn't show it.

Thalia Assuras used to present ABC's overnight news service "World News Now" with Kevin Newman. Those two were very hilarious! Crazy astons, polka, you name it!

Speaking of weekend presenters, what's the first name of that Simpson lady who did World News Sunday on ABC?

Williams has been the heir-apparent to the Nightly News throne for about a decade now. He used to present the weekend Nightly News until a few years ago. Williams' MSNBC nightly newscast 'The News' will also move exclusively to CNBC (it's currently first on MSNBC and then later on CNBC). From what I've read, no one really knows what's going to happen to 'The News' after Williams takes over Nightly.

It's all pretty exciting for me...first major anchor switch in my lifetime. I like Williams a lot too...not crazy about Nightly News...hopefully he'll change some things.

Williams reminds me of one of the following:

a) one of the Marlboro men
b) a smarter Woody Harelson (sp?)

I have watched a few NBC Nightly News' on CNBC and, compared to ABC's World News Tonight I thinks that it's lagging behind. As c@t said, the stupid headlines put you off from the start, and I prefer Peter Jennings to Tom Brokav.

It is funny how news anchormen are held in such high regard in the US, but I like a show that is presented by 1 person. It think it works well IMHO.

I miss Thalia on overnights...<g>

Carole Simpson is the one that used to do World News Sunday on ABC before Aaron Brown did it regularly. I'm not sure who's doing it now.

Contrary to popular belief, Brokaw (and by default Williams) aren't the driving force behind Nightly News. The producers of those shows do most of the driving - and while Brokaw is the most visible person with NBC News (although some would argue that Katie Couric has that role), his hands are not in the mix there anywhere as much as Peter Jennings' are at ABC or (gag) Dan Rather's are at CBS.

I'm sure there will be some sort of change in the air there; NBC is still chasing after top-rated ABC; I wouldn't look for drastic change to the format once Brian Williams takes over. Mostly cosmetic changes (probably new titles, a newsroom makeover and maybe a change in the music - I would love to see NBC grab the Seven News variation on "The Mission" from Australia), but nothing in terms of the overall substance.

That's a pure historical context. NBC has had a single anchor since the early 70's, when John Chancellor (Brokaw's immediate predecessor) took over for Chet Huntley and David Brinkley and NBC's old "Huntley-Brinkley Report."

PJ was part of the three city experiment that led off the original "World News Tonight" in the late 70's (PJ was in London, the other anchors were the late Frank Reynolds in NYC and Max Robinson in Chicago). Before that, the ABC Evening News was anchored by Howard K. Smith, Harry Reasoner or Barbara Walters.

The CBS Evening News was anchored by Walter Chronkite, period. Chronkite's traditional signoff, "And that's the way it is," made it into the national lexicon. Chronkite left the news desk in 1981, making way for, then-"60 Minutes" reporter, Dan Rather.

I was just thinking that Williams may have more control over the programme when he takes over the anchor seat because he is exec producer of 'The News' and I doubt he'd really like to relinquish all of that control...just a guess on my part.