Hours after NBC News officially announced that Brian Williams will not return to anchoring NBC Nightly News following his six-month suspension, Thursday’s editions of NBC Nightly News and ABC’s World News Tonight gave news briefs to this decision as well as the move by the network to promote weekend anchor Lester Holt to the permanent weekday spot.
Reporting on the deadly church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, fill-in anchor and Today co-host Savannah Guthrie informed viewers that “we have news of our own you may have heard about today” with the decision by NBC News “that starting Monday, Lester Holt will officially take over as the anchor of this broadcast.”
Concerning Williams, Guthrie stated that he “is staying with the NBC family” as “[h]e’ll be covering breaking news with our colleagues at MSNBC when his suspension ends in August.”
After admitting that “[t]here has obviously been a lot of speculation about Brian,” Guthrie announced on-air that “he will address it all for the first time publicly in an interview with my colleague Matt Lauer on Today and we will share that interview here on Nightly tomorrow night as well.” Guthrie ended the 31-second news brief by telling viewers that Holt will return to anchor the show on Monday (after being on vacation).
Over on ABC, World News Tonight anchor David Muir dedicated 15 seconds during the newscast’s “Instant Index” segment to “a headline tonight about our own industry” with the announcement concerning his competitors at NBC. Muir added that “[w]e’ve enjoyed watching Lester at the anchor desk, all of us, these last few months and, of course, we wish him and the team down the street well.”
It should be noted that while the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley did not cover this story on Thursday, CBS This Morning devoted a 23-second brief to the story by fill-in co-host Anthony Mason. Mason cited The Los Angeles Times as the newscast aired prior to the official announcement:
The Los Angeles Times says NBC's Brian Williams will not return to the Nightly News anchor chair. Instead NBC reportedly decided on a new role for Williams handling breaking news on MSNBC. He’s been serving a 6 month suspension for false statements about his reporting. Lester Holt is expected to be named as Williams' permanent successor on the Nightly News.
The transcript of the brief from June 18's NBC Nightly News are transcribed below.
NBC Nightly News
June 18, 2015
7:23 p.m. EasternSAVANNAH GUTHRIE: And we have news of our own you may have heard about today. NBC News announced that, starting Monday, Lester Holt will officially take over as the anchor of this broadcast. Brian Williams is staying with the NBC family. He’ll be covering breaking news with his colleagues at MSNBC when his suspension ends in August. There has obviously been a lot of speculation about Brian and tomorrow, he will address it all for the first time publicly in an interview with my colleague Matt Lauer on Today and we will share that interview here on Nightly tomorrow night as well and one more note, Lester will be here on Monday.
The news brief from ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir on June 18 can be found below.
ABC’s World News Tonight with David Muir
June 18, 2015
6:53 p.m. EasternDAVID MUIR: And we have a headline tonight about our own industry. NBC announcing Brian Williams will not be returning as anchor of NBC Nightly News. Lester Holt will now officially become the anchor. We've enjoyed watching Lester at the anchor desk, all of us, these last few months and, of course, we wish him and the team down the street well.
