Weekend Today Wasn't Enough; Now He Gets To Do Nightly News on Saturday and Sundays Too. Does This Signal A Campbell Brown Exit?
Lester Holt is the new The Man at NBC News. Not only does he get to wake up in the middle of the night on weekends to host "Today," he now gets to go home, take a nap, and come back nice and refreshed to anchor "Nightly News."
Holt replaces John Siegenthaler, who parted ways with the Peacock, after his bosses realized he was only working two days a week for a fat paycheck and they didn't know what else to do with him. No such problem for Holt.
An NBC press release reveals Holt will also fill-in for Brian Williams, contribute to MSNBC and take on "special assignments" within the news division. And maybe he'll get to see his family every now and then as a reward.
A lingering question now is whether this announcement presages the end of Holt's Today co-host Campbell Brown's tenure at NBC. Her contract is soon up, and the rumor mill has been cranking about her possibly decamping to CNN and getting the Paula Zahn slot.
Brown has also proven to be a valuable backup/intrepid reporter as well as an engaging "Today" host. If she was sticking around, it wouldn't have been hard to give her one of the "Nightly News" slots, similar to what CBS does with Thalia Assuras and Russ Mitchell on weekends.
You'd think NBC would want to hold onto a good thing in Brown, but she might want to sleep in a bit more, especially after getting passed over for the weekday "Today" gig when Katie Couric bolted.
A job at CNN would allow her to throw away her alarm clock.
No comments:
Post a Comment