Former NBC founder Brian Williams in talks to host Amazon Prime’s ‘unbiased’ late night event

Former NBC News and MSNBC founder Brian Williams, whose career was upended by a reporting scandal in 2015, is discussing his first hosting event in years with a live election night event on Amazon Prime.

Variety reported Saturday that five people “with knowledge of the matter” said Williams and Amazon are “in advanced discussions” for Williams to host a live news-related original show. The report says the purpose of the event is “to have an impartial discussion about the events of the night.”

“Amazon’s Election Night special will likely feature Williams relying heavily on the Associated Press to determine how candidates are doing in the states. The show will be broadcast from a studio in the Los Angeles area, one of the people said, and could start early. 5pm eastern,” reported Variety. .

The report continued, “Williams will be ready to sit at the desk for seven to eight hours — and possibly more. In the case of a close election where the results are too close to call, this person says, Williams will broadcast. as long as it can last.”

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Variety added the deal doesn’t mean the platform will produce more news programming events.

“The show is more about telling stories, the person says, than breaking them down. Producers have lined up well-known names, the person adds, and felt that many of their traditional TV news competitors have cut back on their sponsors as economic pressures have taken their toll, the person says. , you will aim to be large and accessible and offer a wide range of celebrity guests.

Williams’ election night special will be Amazon Prime’s first live news event. (Photo by Bobby Bank/WireImage | Image credit by Idrees Abbas/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital has reached out to Amazon for comment.

In addition to getting into politics, Amazon won exclusive rights last year to broadcast the NFL’s Thursday Night Football.

Williams has not been on the air since she officially left NBC in 2021, though she previously mentioned joining other networks.

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Williams anchored the “NBC Nightly News” from 2004 until 2015, when her work was suspended after a six-month suspension for not being able to handle what she said were events that occurred while she was covering the Iraq War.

Williams lied that he was in a helicopter that was hit by a bomb while in Iraq, but it turned out that his plane was following the one that caught fire. Reports surfaced in 2015 that an internal investigation by NBC News revealed other instances in which he fabricated or embellished his accounts.

The scandal undermined his credibility and was a major embarrassment for NBC News, demoting him to a prestigious job anchoring the network. Lester Holt has held the position ever since.

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Williams was reassigned to MSNBC, NBC’s cable network, as a news anchor, and began hosting the late-night show “The 11th Hour” in 2016 until his departure in 2021.

Fox News’ Yael Halon contributed to this report.