Brian Williams.Photo: Virginia Sherwood/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Brian Williams has signed off ofThe 11th Hourfor the final time.
The television host is leaving MSNBC and NBC News after 28 years. Williams called Thursday night “more emotional than an average Thursday night” as he hosted the show for the last time, discussing the major political events of the day.
“After 28 years of Peacock logos on much of what I own, it is my choice to now jump without a net into the great unknown,” Williams told viewers at the end of the show following a video montage that took a look back at his career highlights at NBC. “As I do for the first time in my 62 years, my greatest worry is my country.”
“What a ride it’s been. Where else, how else, was a kid like me going to meet presidents and kings and the occasional rockstar?” he continued. “These lovely testimonials that I can never truly repay make me hyper aware that it has been and remains a wonderful life.”
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Williams said he will “probably find it impossible to stay silent” and will likely be back providing commentary in some form after he’s “experimented with relaxation.”
According to CNN, a rotating list of guest personalities will take over hosting duties for the late-night news program beginning on Monday.
MSNBC President Rashida Jonesannounced the news in Novemberthat Williams would be ending his run as host ofThe 11th Hourat the end of the year to “spend time with his family.”
Art Streiber/MSNBC
“NBC is a part of me and always will be,” he said in a statement of his own at the time. “This is the end of a chapter and the beginning of another. There are many things I want to do, and I’ll pop up again somewhere. For the next few months, I’ll be with my family, the people I love most and the people who enabled my career to happen. I will reflect on the kindness people have shown me, and I will pay it forward.”
After joining the network in 1993, Williams became the anchor forThe News with Brian Williamsin 1996. He began anchoringNBC Nightly Newsin 2004, taking over for Tom Brokaw.
source: people.com
