Amazon Prime confirms former NBC host Brian Williams as host of election night special

Amazon Prime confirmed Thursday that former NBC News and MSNBC anchor Brian Williams, whose career was disrupted by an embarrassing reporting scandal in 2015, will host an election night special.

According to Variety, the show will be titled “Election Night Live With Brian Williams” and will air from a studio in Los Angeles at 5 p.m. Eastern. 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 special one-night Election Night event. Prime Video offers customers access to programming that delights, informs and engages, conveniently delivered in one centralized app,” vice president and head of Prime Video Albert Cheng said in a statement.

He continued: “This unbiased 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 an instant and seamless way to stay informed of the election results.”

Ex-NBC host Brian Williams in talks to host Amazon Prime’s ‘nonpartisan’ election night event

“After 41 years in the industry – from local news to network shows to cable news – this feels like the next big thing. And Amazon’s global marketplace is a natural home for this unique business,” Williams added. in his own statement. “Together we will follow the storyline on election night wherever it takes us.”

Read on the Fox News app

Variety first reported last month that Williams and Amazon were in “late-stage discussions” over whether Williams could host the platform’s first live news-related program. The report claimed that the purpose of the event “is to conduct an impartial discussion of the events of that evening.”

“Amazon’s Election Night special would see Williams rely heavily on the Associated Press to determine how the candidates fared state-by-state,” Variety reported.

The report continued: “Williams would be willing to remain at his desk for seven to eight hours – and possibly even longer. In the event of a close election where the results are too close to predict, this person says, Williams would as long as it can be sustainable.”

Williams has not been on the air since formally leaving NBC in 2021, though he previously hinted at joining other networks.

Click here for more media and culture coverage

Williams was the anchor of NBC Nightly News from 2004 to 2015, when his career was upended after he was suspended for six months for misrepresenting events he said occurred during coverage of the Iraq War.

Williams falsely claimed he was aboard a helicopter that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade during his time in Iraq, but it turned out that his plane was following the plane that came under fire. In 2015, reports emerged that an internal NBC News investigation had revealed several other instances in which he had fabricated or embellished his accounts.

The scandal damaged his credibility and deeply embarrassed NBC News, resulting in him being demoted from the prestigious position of network anchor.

Williams was moved 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.

Original article source: Amazon Prime confirms former NBC host Brian Williams as host of election night special