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NBC Nightly News is the flagship evening news program for NBC News and broadcasts from Studio 3C at the GE Building, Rockefeller Center in New York City. It has been known by this name since August 3, 1970.
The John Chancellor era
The program succeeded the Huntley-Brinkley Report upon the retirement of Chet Huntley in 1970. At first, a triumvirate of anchors, John Chancellor, Frank McGee, and David Brinkley presented the news on a rotating basis.
McGee left several months after the show began to anchor the morning news program NBC Today Show. Chancellor continued on as sole anchor until June 1976, when the rotating anchor experiment was reinstated, with Chancellor reporting from the NBC News headquarters in New York City with Brinkley reporting from Washington. The anchor rotation was continued until October 1979 with Chancellor and Brinkley; but pressure from the NBC sales department ended it.
By that time, Chancellor was unable to attract the viewers Walter Cronkite was attracting on the CBS Evening News. During his tenure as NBC Nightly News anchor, he never was able to break the grip Cronkite had on the American news viewer, despite NBC's various changes to the show. Chancellor did, however, remain as an editorial commentator on the news for many years.
The Tom Brokaw era
Tom Brokaw became solo anchor of NBC Nightly News on September 5, 1983, after NBC experimented with a dual-anchor program where he was paired with Roger Mudd. His presence attracted viewers, and during the 1990s, NBC Nightly News battled for the viewership lead with ABC World News Tonight, anchored by the urbane Canadian Peter Jennings. The once-dominant CBS Evening News, anchored by Dan Rather and hobbled by corporate cost cutting, slid to third place in the viewership wars.
In May 2002, Brokaw announced his retirement as anchor of NBC Nightly News effective shortly after the presidential election of 2004. Brokaw's last presidential election coverage in 2004 was covered with the states on the ice-skating rink in Rockefeller Plaza and the popular vote on the GE Building. His last broadcast was on December 1, 2004.
The Brian Williams era
Brian Williams, a frequent fill-in for Brokaw, succeeded as the newscast's permanent anchor the following day, December 2, 2004. The program has continued to hold onto its number one spot in the ratings, averaging nearly 8 million viewers weekly according to Nielsen Media research documented in USA Today's website. A blog, The Daily Nightly, has been started to add insight into how the broadcast is put together. In addition, the full weekday broadcast is available to view at the same night after 10 p.m. Eastern time.
Williams was praised for his reporting during and after the 2005 Hurricane season.
Campbell Brown often substitutes for Brian when he is on holiday or unavailable. So does Ann Curry.
Theme music
- Huntley-Brinkley Report/NBC Nightly News Ticker (1970-1973; note: the theme was used since 1962 when the program was still called The Huntley-Brinkley Report).
- NBC News Ticker (1973-1976).
- Untitled theme (1976-1977).
- NBC Nightly News, by Henry Mancini (1977-1982).
- NBC News, by Joseph Paul Sicurella, Tony Smythe, and Bob Christianson (1979-1982 as a bumper; 1982-1985 as the main theme).
- The Mission, by John Williams (1985-present).
Trivia
- Australia's Seven Network has been using variations of The Mission news theme on its Bulletins since the late 1980s, including a club mix version of the theme used from 1999 to 2004.
- From 1983 to 1984, the credits featured a computer-generated globe which spun west-to-east instead of east-to-west. Tom Brokaw noted a viewer's observation of this mistake on the air, and the spin was reversed in 1984.
Credits
- Segment Producer: Martin R. Cotton (1983-1986)
- Assistant Producer: Leigh Crandall (2003)
- Executive Producer: Jonathan Wald (2000-)
- Music by: Henry Mancini (1977-1982), John Williams (1985-)
- Editors: David Klandrud (2004-), Derek McCants (1985-1986), Jason Sands (1990-1992)
- Production Manager: John R. Holmes
- Location Sound Mixer: Michael Keenan
- Sound Mixer: Rob Whitehurst
- Videotape Operator: Brian Michael Finn (2005-)
See also
External links
Links for John Williams' Theme
NBC News | NBC network shows | News television series | 1980s TV shows in the United States | 1990s TV shows in the United States | 2000s TV shows in the United States
"NBC Nightly News"