What’s Next for Brian Williams: Perhaps Hosting a TV Talk Show

There is a lengthy story in Vanity Fair on the challenges facing NBC News titled “The Inside Story of the Civil War For the Soul of NBC News”.

The in-depth piece covers a lot of ground but, as related to the future of Brian Williams, concludes that “NBC insiders insist (his future) remains up in the air. He and Andy Lack (a one-time president and chief operating officer of NBC, who returns this month to oversee NBC News and MSNBC) 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, (president of CNN) 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.”