Brian Williams Announces Departure From NBC After 28 Years

Brian Williams announced on Tuesday night that he will leave as host of MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour” and NBC News entirely by the end of the year. His contract with NBC is set to expire in December.

“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,” Williams said at the end of his show.

“Twenty-eight years, 38 countries, 8 Olympic games, 7 presidential elections, half a dozen Presidents, a few wars, and one SNL. ... 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.”

Williams, 62, started his career at CBS News in 1981 as a reporter. He moved around a bit before joining NBC in 1993. At the news network, he anchored the “Weekend Nightly News” and was chief White House correspondent.

By 1996, he was the anchor and managing editor of “The News with Brian Williams,” which was broadcast on MSNBC and CNBC. He replaced Tom Brokaw in 2004 as the permanent host of “NBC Nightly News.” During this time, Williams also won 12 News and Documentary Emmy awards.

However, in February 2015, Williams was suspended for misrepresenting his experiences in Iraq. He claimed that he was in a helicopter that was shot down by an RPG in Iraq, which he never was, and it would come out later that he was in a part of a separate group of helicopters than the one that was fired upon. For this misrepresentation, Williams was suspended for six months but returned in September of that year as MSNBC’s chief anchor.

"The 11th Hour" has been anchored by Williams since 2016, beginning with the coverage of the 2016 Iowa caucuses. Williams says that after his departure he will spend time with loved ones and give back to all those who helped him along during his career, but that he will return “somewhere.”