Only a few TV anchors have sat behind the NBC evening news desk during the past 65 years.
On December 2, 2004, a new person took a seat at the desk, when Brian Williams succeeded Tom Brokaw as anchor of NBC Nightly News. (View: 10th anniversary photo gallery.)
Brian Williams, at the end of his first broadcast as news anchor, thanked his predecessor.
(See Also: “Today in media history: ‘NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw’ begins”)
Following is an excerpt from the 2005 documentary, “In His Own Words: Brian Williams on Hurricane Katrina.”
“The storm winds started in the morning.
When they lowered the huge corrugated steel doors at the back of the Superdome, we were inside with everybody else, locked inside for the duration of the storm. It was dark. The power was out early. There was no circulating air. There was only the food we brought….
I remember that first night. Monday night. The hurricane had blown over. We looked back at the Superdome — half the roof had been ripped off. We looked back at the skyline, all the windows at the Hyatt hotel had been blown out.
We were stunned to look around and see what it had done….”
Part three from the documentary:
Brian Williams has always seemed to appreciate the history of NBC television news. This is a list of some of the NBC evening news network anchors/commentators during the past 65 years:
NBC Television Newsreel
(Paul Alley, off-camera commentator)
February 1948 — February 1949John Cameron Swayze (on-camera)
Camel News Caravan
February 1949 — October 1956Chet Huntley and David Brinkley
Huntley-Brinkley Report
October 29, 1956 — July 31, 1970David Brinkley, John Chancellor, Frank McGee
NBC Nightly News
August 1, 1970 — 1971John Chancellor and commentator David Brinkley
NBC Nightly News
1971 — 1976John Chancellor and co-anchor David Brinkley
NBC Nightly News
1976 — 1979John Chancellor
NBC Nightly News
October 5, 1979 — April 2, 1982Tom Brokaw and Roger Mudd
NBC Nightly News
April 5, 1982 — September 1983Tom Brokaw
(Commentaries by John Chancellor, 1983-1991)
NBC Nightly News
September 5, 1983 — December 1, 2004Brian Williams
NBC Nightly News
December 2, 2004 –
