A month ago, after Brian Williams had taken himself off NBC Nightly News while the network conducted an investigation into the truthfulness of his involvement with a helicopter attack in Iraq back in 2003, I wrote that the anchor was trying too hard to give himself gravitas as a newscaster.
More than that, Williams was making a great effort to seem cool to a wider audience with appearances on late-night talk shows like The Daily Show, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show with David Letterman. Look how funny he could be! This wasn’t just a serious newsman. He could be an entertainer.
As it turns out, Williams truly carried ambitions toward being that kind of figure on television. He saw himself as sitting behind the same desk as Letterman and Jon Stewart. Following NBC’s decision to suspend their lead news anchor for six months while he was being further investigated, New York magazine’s Gabriel Sherman reported that Williams had proposed to network executives that he replace Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show.
Perhaps that shouldn’t have been a surprise, considering Williams’ appearances on late-night comedy programs as well as cameos on NBC’s sitcom 30 Rock. The man clearly enjoyed showing his comedic side, demonstrating that he wasn’t just a stiff, news-reading robot that your parents watched on the evening news.
But to go from lead anchor and managing editor — a title that needs to be considered when discussing Williams’ penchant for storytelling — of NBC Nightly News to yukking it up with celebrities and comedians on The Tonight Show? Had anyone ever had aspirations for such a move before? In the 1950s, Edward R. Murrow — whom many would wince at including in the same paragraph with Williams — once hosted a celebrity interview show titled Person to Person. Williams’ predecessor, Tom Brokaw, was the co-host of the Today show, albeit before he took over Nightly News.
However, those comparisons don’t fully apply to what Williams supposedly had in mind. Murrow’s show was in addition to the reporting and commentary he did on See It Now. For Brokaw, Today was a stepping stone job, in which he served for six years before ascending to NBC’s chief news anchor. Williams presumably envisioned walking away from the news and transitioning to entertainment.
Could you picture Dan Rather or Peter Jennings doing such a thing? Maybe Katie Couric or Diane Sawyer, since they’re such talented interviewers. But perhaps that’s why Williams had an itch to do this: Because it would distinguish him from his peers, and he displayed the sort of wit and timing that was well suited for a late-night talk show.
This apparently wasn’t just some “Hey, I could do that job” whim for Williams either. In the latest issue of New York (March 9), Sherman filed another feature article on the behind-the-scenes drama at NBC News and discovered through his reporting that Williams had flirted with other networks about taking over a late-night show. In particular, he had eyes on replacing David Letterman.
Comedy would have been a path out of Brokaw’s shadow. A few years ago, Williams told Burke he wanted to take over the Tonight Show from Jay Leno. Burke dismissed the idea and instead offered Williams a weekly prime-time program called Rock Center. Williams hoped it might develop into a variety show. But Rock Center ended up more like a softer 60 Minutes, and it was canceled after two middling seasons. Undeterred, Williams pitched CBS CEO Les Moonves about succeeding David Letterman, according to a high-level source, but Moonves wasn’t interested. (CBS declined to comment.)
I wonder if Williams is jealous of that variety show Neil Patrick Harris is getting on NBC? If Williams ends up not returning to Nightly News after his suspension, maybe he can elbow Harris out and land that gig.
But in an interview with CNN’s Brian Stelter on Reliable Sources, Sherman did apply a bit of context to Williams’ flirtations. The anchor was looking ahead to the end of his contract, which was set to expire last year, and contemplating whether or not this presented an opportunity to follow through on his comedic ambitions. With Letterman announcing that he would retire in 2015, the timing seemed to work out well for Williams if this is something he really wanted to do.
As Sherman reports, the point was moot since CBS wasn’t interested. But comedy was the girl that got away for Williams. He couldn’t let go of the idea of working in late-night. That likely led to his myriad talk show appearances, most importantly the problematic one with Letterman during which he made it sound as if he was in a helicopter that had been shot down in Iraq.
Sherman’s long feature shows that there are many more problems at NBC News than what’s going on with Williams. (It’s possible all of these issues could help save his job, if what caused this scandal are systemic, deep-rooted issues.) But while he serves his suspension, reporters have plenty of time to dig, talk to sources and turn up information such as Williams’ insecurity over Brokaw still being a presence in the newsroom, rankling producers and reporters by killing tough stories, and of course, his itch to be a late-night comedy host.
I once thought Williams would get through this and eventually return to the Nightly News anchor chair. But the longer this goes on, the greater my doubts become. Williams is increasingly being portrayed as someone who shouldn’t be taken seriously.
The easy joke to make is that Williams can have it both ways, being a newsman and comedian, by taking over for Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. If Comedy Central wanted to make a needle-moving hire, he would certainly be that guy. But Stewart was essentially our country’s top media critic, pointing out inconsistencies, biases and laziness on a nightly basis. While Williams might not be expected to have the same credibility that he supposedly held on NBC, how viable a commentator could he be after being exposed as an exaggerator and fabricator?
Even comedy has standards. Williams may have to hope that one of the other late-night gigs somehow opens up in the next few years. Otherwise, he seems likely to fade away in infamy and eventual obscurity. There’s nothing funny about that.
[New York]
