Former NBC News and MSNBC host Brian Williams is in talks to return to the desk… in a surprising new home.
Amazon Prime Video is in talks with Williams to host an election night special, The Hollywood journalist he confirmed. The special, if it were to materialize (a source warns that talks are still ongoing and a deal may or may not materialize), would feature Williams and a group of other contributors discussing the election results. The special would be non-partisan.
Williams spent nearly three decades with NBC, where he served as host of NBC News and MSNBC. He anchored NBC's flagship Nightly News from 2004 to 2015, before resigning after exaggerations and falsehoods were found in some of his reporting, including reports from Iraq and from New Orleans after it was devastated by Hurricane Katrina .
He would go on to anchor the 11pm hour on MSNBC, before leaving the company entirely in 2021.
It's a surprising foray into what's new from Prime Video, which until now has focused on entertainment programs like Fall and sports such as the NFL and NBA. Of course, a one-off special isn't the same as a full-fledged foray into news, but it's an intriguing step into the space. A source cautioned that the special is seen as a once-in-a-lifetime thing and not necessarily a harbinger of future plans.
News does not have a long shelf life, like entertainment programs, and does not attract a mass audience like sports (election nights notwithstanding).
However, streaming services owned by media companies that produce news have added programs in recent years. Both Paramount+ and Peacock have news programming from CBS and NBC, respectively, while Disney+ added ABC News programming earlier this month (Hulu has had it for years). Warner Bros. Discovery's Max also added CNN programming last year, although it withdrew from broadcasting most U.S. CNN shows.
Variety first reported the talks.