How to handle a problem like Brian Williams?
Carefully. Especially when so much money is involved and power media attorney Bob Barnett is doing the negotiating on an obscenely huge contract reportedly worth $50 million.
NBC is finally getting close to bringing NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams back into the fold when his suspension ends in August. In just what role is unknown at this point. But according to CNN, he won’t resume his old job as star of the Nightly News program, which is now being hosted by Lester Holt.
There are murmurings that execs may shove him in an Ann Curry type role, a “roving reporter” kind of post. “What will he be doing?” asked CNN’s Brian Stelter on AC360 Wednesday night. “Almost nobody knows.”
Keep in mind, almost everybody who loses their job on TV is pretend assigned to another amazing project that never sees the light of day.
CNN reports that as Williams fate is being decided, so are the specifics of his comeback.
Willams has had a fairly humbling six month break — he tried to surface at difference points, once with his daughter’s adorable dog. But it didn’t really have the effect that he probably wanted it to.
The well-known newscaster got into trouble in February when Stars & Stripes reporter Travis Tritten figured out that he was lying about and exaggerating a trip to Iraq. Williams said his helicopter was shot down. That was actually a different chopper — and one he wasn’t flying in when the shots were fired.
After a Stars & Stripes reporter contacted NBC with news of military personnel questioning Williams tall tale, he finally admitted that his story wasn’t true. NBC suspended him for 6 months so they could investigate what all their prize host has been fibbing about while working at the network.
From the sound of it, Williams won’t be totally in the doghouse when he returns. But the truth is, he won’t be entirely out of it either.