Tuesday, April 07, 2015

Brian Williams Future: The New Larry King?

Hmm, this is a very interesting article about the behind the scenes goings on at NBC news during the Brian Williams lying scandal. The article can easily be blown up and used for an HBO docu-drama about that whole affair. This morsel I found especially interesting.
Williams’s future, NBC insiders insist, remains up in the air. He and Andy Lack are close friends, leading to widespread speculation that Lack will reinstate him once his suspension is complete. But people close to Lack say nothing has yet been decided. Many NBC observers simply can’t imagine a network anchorman ever returning to his former position after being exposed as Williams has. The most Machiavellian scenario, floated by an NBC partisan, is that Jeff Zucker, whose distaste for Comcast executives is well known, has fanned the flames of controversy so that he can eventually snare Williams for CNN—not as a newsman but as the long-sought replacement for Larry King. “That’s the perfect solution,” a source says. “Zucker gets a star, and Brian gets the talk show he always wanted.”
I can see Williams at CNN interviewing people like Larry King did back in the day. He won't be in front of people day-after-day like a news anchor but can still do some hard news by interviewing political figures. He would also get a chance to talk to celebs and sports figures like King did. 

Some hard news with a little soft news thrown in but not having to do a monologue like he would have had to do if he took over the Tonight Show. He could even make it a Daily Show or that HBO show with John Oliver but without the jokiness of that format. I would actually watch this show from time to time because I actually enjoy the Brian Williams that I would see interviewed on the Tonight Show or Daily Show. This CNN show would be the perfect book-end to this whole affair.

No comments: