Amazon Prime confirmed on Thursday that former NBC News and MSNBC anchor Brian Williams, whose career was upended by an embarrassing reporting scandal in 2015, will be hosting an election night special.
According to Variety, the program will be titled “Election Night Live With Brian Williams” and begin airing at 5 p.m. Eastern from a Los Angeles studio. The live event will be available to all Amazon customers, including those not subscribed to Amazon Prime.
“Prime Video is excited to host Brian Williams for a one-night-only Election Night special event. Prime Video provides customers access to programming that delights, informs and engages, conveniently offered in one centralized app,” Vice President and head of Prime Video Albert Cheng said in a statement.
He continued, “This non-partisan live special will draw from major news sources and complement the various partner news channels available on Prime Video. Our comprehensive offering is designed to give today’s viewer a direct and seamless way to keep up with election results.”
Variety first reported on discussions for the event in September. (Photo by Bobby Bank/WireImage | Photo Illustration by Idrees Abbas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
EX-NBC ANCHOR BRIAN WILLIAMS IN TALKS TO HOST AMAZON PRIME’S ‘NON-PARTISAN’ ELECTION NIGHT EVENT
“After 41 years in the business — from local news to network shows to cable news — this feels like the next big thing. And the global marketplace of Amazon is a natural home for this first-of-its-kind venture,” Williams added in his own statement. “Together we will follow the storyline on election night wherever it leads us.”
Variety first reported last month that Williams and Amazon were in “late-stage discussions” for Williams to host the platform’s first live news-related program. The report claimed the aim of the event “is to have a non-partisan discussion of that evening’s events.”
“Amazon’s Election Night special would likely have Williams relying heavily on the Associated Press to determine how candidates were faring state by state,” Variety reported.
Amazon has described it as a “non-partisan” event that will stream for all customers. (Photo by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The report continued, “Williams would be prepared to stay at the desk for as many as seven to eight hours — and potentially more. In the case of a close election in which results are too close to call, this person says, Williams would broadcast for as long as it might be sustainable.”
Williams has not been on the air since formally leaving NBC in 2021, although he previously hinted at joining other networks.
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Williams anchored “NBC Nightly News” from 2004 until 2015, when his career was upended after he was suspended for six months for misrepresenting events he claimed occurred while covering the Iraq War.
Williams falsely claimed he was aboard a helicopter that was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade while in Iraq, but it turned out his aircraft was following the one that came under fire. Reports emerged in 2015 that an NBC News internal investigation had turned up several other instances where he fabricated or embellished his accounts.
Brian Williams left NBC after a series of false reporting tarnished his credibility. (Photo by: Heidi Gutman/MSNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
The scandal tarnished his credibility and was a deep embarrassment to NBC News, which demoted him from the prestigious network anchor job.
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Williams was reassigned to MSNBC, NBC’s liberal cable arm, as a breaking news anchor, and he began hosting the nightly program “The 11th Hour” in 2016 until his departure in 2021.
Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report.
