MSNBC 11th Hour host and former NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is leaving NBC when his contract expires at the end of the year. Williams made the decision to “spend time with his family,” according to MSNBC President Rashida Jones, who announced the news on Tuesday.
“Following much reflection and after 28 years with the company, I have decided to leave NBC upon the completion of my current contract in December,” the 62-year-old longtime anchor wrote in a letter to colleagues. Williams also reflected on the “28 years, 38 countries, eight Olympic Games, seven presidential elections, half a dozen presidents, a few wars and one SNL,” that had expanded over his career. “Good friends were in great supply at NBC. I was fortunate that everyone I worked with made me better at my job.”
Williams had been hosting MSNBC since 2015 when a scandal resulted in his demotion from NBC Nightly News. He had initially been suspended from NBC after it came to light that he had relayed an inaccurate story about his news team’s helicopter being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade while on assignment in Iraq in 2003.
“I made a mistake in recalling the events of 12 years ago,” Williams said at the time.
Williams has been married to Jane Gillan Stoddard since 1986. They have two children, actress Allison Williams and Doug Williams, the late-night anchor of Geico SportsNite on SportsNet New York, a regional sports channel in the New York metropolitan area.
