RUSH: This is Greg in Pensacola, Florida. You’re next. I’m glad you waited. Welcome to the program, sir.
CALLER: Yeah, Rush, you know, Williams now we know is a serial liar, for those that didn’t know that before, but if we got comedy coming to the news, or so-called news, how about make it a revolving doctor, Williams needs to go to something like Saturday Night Live. Let’s take news and put news into comedy, because this guy really, I mean, unless he becomes either the president or a professor, he has no real job, you know, in his future. But I think put him on Saturday Night Live, he’d be brilliant.
RUSH: No, no, no, no, no, no, wait. Let me correct you. Now, let’s take a look at this suspension. Follow me on this. The suspension is six months, essentially. That takes us to when? September. What is happening in September? (interruption) No, it’s not the beginning of the presidential — no, no, no, no. In pop culture news, what’s happening in September? Colbert is taking over for Letterman, debuting in September.
So if Williams gets suspended through September, would it be surprising if his first appearance before even showing back up on NBC News is to show up on the first Colbert and do his mea culpas and, “Gee, I’m sorry,” and, “Oh, my God, and here’s what I’ve been doing and I love everybody,” and the next night he’s on the NBC Nightly News? Can you see that scenario? I mentioned that scenario to a friend of mine last night, and he said, “Man, you are thinking so far ahead down the road on this,” but is that not made to order?
I mean, here Williams had to cancel Letterman tomorrow night. He’s was scheduled to be on Letterman. Not gonna be on Letterman. But in September Colbert debuts on Letterman, so this September appearance could be Brian Williams coming out. (interruption) What? (interruption) Are who and Williams friends? (interruption) Oh, yeah. They’re friends, yeah. Williams is friends with the whole New York lib media. Oh, yeah. Brian Williams has made it a point to get to know all these people and work them.
In fact, you may not know this. Greg, you are on to something more than you may even be aware of. But not too many years ago, when Jay Leno was going to retire or when it was known that he was gonna retire, Brian Williams went to the bosses at NBC News and asked for The Tonight Show. He asked to be let out of the Nightly News and be given The Tonight Show, because he fashions himself a comedian and an entertainer. They said no, you’re gonna stay in the news. But he wanted The Tonight Show.
So I think what ought to happen here, I think move Brian Williams to Saturday Night Live and move that cast to the NBC Nightly News and call it Every Night Live and have a Saturday Night Live crew do the 6:30 news, have Brian Williams do Saturday Night Live as the Saturday Nightly News on NBC at 11:30, just reverse ’em, and make it official. Let Lorne Michaels have the Nightly News. They’ve always wanted that to be an hour, right? The networks have always wanted the nightly news to be an hour, not a half hour.
Okay, NBC, follow through on it, dudes. Give Lorne Michaels the Nightly News, make it an hour, and bring the Saturday Night Live cast in and make it Every Night Live. Don’t call it the NBC Nightly News. Just call it Every Night Live instead of Saturday Night Live. And then when Brian Williams comes back, move him to Saturday at 11:30 and it doesn’t matter what he says then.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, one more thing here, ladies and gentlemen, on Brian Williams. I don’t think he’s ever coming back. My guess is that this six-month suspension, they’re not through investigating. There are still things surfacing, things that he’s been discovered to have lied about and made up, and there are all kinds of investigations. ABC’s got their investigation going; NBC has its own internal investigation going.
So what they gonna do here, is they’re gonna see how Lester Holt does as the fill-in anchor. They’re gonna see. Can he maintain the numbers that they had or maybe grow them? Probably not. So the next thing that’s gonna happen is you’ll see a number of people who will be called “replacements,” temporary sit-ins for Lester Holt. It’ll be Savannah Guthrie one week or a couple of nights.
They’ll use this six months ahead to audition to find the next person they want to put in that chair if they want to keep the news as the news, if they don’t want to make any changes. I still think they should consider my idea of giving that half hour to Lorne Michaels, then asking their affiliates for another half hour. Make it a one-hour show at 6:30. Get back to the original roots of television.
Make it an Every Night Live show with the Saturday Night Live cast moving to Every Night Live at 6:30 or 7:00, whenever they do it. Then that leaves your Saturday night 11:30 option open. You could put on a new show or move Brian Williams in there to do whatever he wants to do. Okay? If he makes things up there, it doesn’t matter. But I don’t see him coming back.
I think that’s one of the reasons why the suspension without pay and why it’s six months in duration.
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