Tonight’s broadcast of NBC Nightly News began on a high note– literally, the high-pitched sound of a fire alarm. The studio from which Brian Williams was broadcasting appeared to have scheduled a test of the fire alarm system to start just as the news report began, interrupting Williams as he tried to report on the news of American Airlines’ dire economic situation.

On the heels of ABC’s huge audience–nearly 15 million viewers–for Diane Sawyer‘s exclusive interview with kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard comes word the interview, which was previewed on Sawyer’s ABC World News, boosted ABC’s evening newscast into a first place finish ahead of NBC Nightly News. On Thursday night, World News beat Nightly by 106,000 total viewers (7.656 million vs. 7.550 million), and helped drive World News to its best weekly performance in six weeks.

On Wednesday night’s The Last Word, MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell delivered a spot-on critique of the way President Obama‘s remarks about Israel have been handled by the news media, and others. The false charge that the President has “called for Israel to return to the 1967 borders” has come tripping off of many a tongue, including O’Donnell’s NBC News colleague Brian Williams, barely a day earlier.

It seems fairly certain that very soon, CBS News will come to the end of the Katie Couric era. For many, that means an entertaining round of media speculation about who will inherit the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News.

Much of the speculation has focused on Scott Pelley, the CBS lifer who’s a correspondent at 60 Minutes. Pelley’s a nice guy, a good reporter and would surely do a fine job as an evening news anchor.

Do you watch the network evening news? Does your Dad? NBC’s Nightly News, CBS’ Evening News and ABC’s World News have long battled perceptions–fueled by the kinds of commercials you see if you watch the newscasts–that their audiences are gray-haired and in need of all kinds of pills, potions and goop to keep their teeth in place. But NBC hopes to freshen up its advertising image with a new pitch: sure we have older viewers, but they pay attention, and they’re cheaper to reach with us than with CSI.

Here’s a factoid you don’t want to see if you work at CBS News: your flagship newscast, the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric hit the lowest ratings in nearly two decades–actually, the lowest on record, since Nielsen figures for the program only go back to 1992. Hence the widespread belief in media circles that Couric, whose CBS contract expires in June, will not be continuing in her evening news role.

For the first quarter of 2011, in the key demo of adults 25-54, the CBS Evening News averaged 1.98 million viewers, compared to ABC World News‘ 2.43 million and NBC Nightly News‘ 2.94 million.

NBC’s chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel was with Libyan rebels when they came under fire by Gaddafi loyalists Wednesday. Engel, who traveled to a rebel-held area south of Benghazi, was in the middle of an interview when artillery rounds begin pounding the area–rebels diving for cover and Engel caught in the middle of it. It made for powerful–and extremely dangerous–reporting.

The uprising in Egypt forced an airlift of American news anchors to Cairo, but NBC’s Brian Williams outperformed his counterparts in terms of ratings, hitting a six-year high for his NBC Nightly News for the week ending February 5. Nightly averaged more than 11.2 million viewers, the newscast’s best showing since January 2005.

NBC execs point out that the ratings for Nightly were bigger than the viewership of some primetime shows, including ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy (11.182 million viewers) and The Bachelor (9.660 million).

The woman who escorted nine-year old victim Christina Taylor Green to see Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has sat down with NBC’s Brian Williams to tell the horrific story of the shootings and the death of Christina.

Speaking to Williams in Tucson, Suzi Hileman shares her memory of looking down at the wounded girl, trying to keep her alive until help could get there. “And I’m yelling at her, ‘Christina Taylor Green, don’t you die on me.’”

Brian Williams, fresh off his tour de force boneless arms routine on TODAY, now has something to be thankful for this week: his Nightly News has opened a big lead over second-placed ABC World News with Diane Sawyer:

NBC Nightly News may be about to make one of the strangest pitches in the history of network news: If you don’t watch, maybe you’d like to DVR us?

Given all of the pitched rhetoric about Mosques, Koran burning and Islamophobia in today’s political and opinion media, its fair to say that this is a pretty big get. On last night’s NBC Nightly News, a respectfully scarf-clad Andrea Mitchell spoke with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who asserted that “muslims do not hate America,” shortly before chiding the NBC News reporter for interrupting him.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was a guest on CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman last night and the cross network appearance was a major theme of the discussion.

From the very first question, Letterman (armed with his Jay Leno impression) joked at his rival’s expense while Williams played the role of mediator.

Last night, Countdown host Keith Olbermann criticized CNN’s Rick Sanchez mid-broadcast for opening his show with the Connecticut workplace shooting story. Olbermann opened with the Prop 8 ruling, and tweeted out “I happen to like Rick Sanchez, I worked with him. But how CNN could begin with the Connecticut shooting, bad as it was, is inexplicable.” Turns out that in a nearby studio in the same building, NBC News’ flagship program Nightly News also inexplicably led with the very same story.

TVNewser catches one of the strangest audio glitches in awhile, in which audio from the NBC Nightly News played during the CBS Evening News last night.

At the beginning of the program, Katie Couric introduced the first report from Mark Strassmann in the Gulf. Then things got weird.

Who: Brian Williams, interviewed by Jeff Greenfield
What: “In the News with Jeff Greenfield – Brian Williams”
Where: 92^nd St. Y
When: April 18, 2010
Thumbs: Up

Last night The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart brought Brian Williams from NBC’s Nightly news onto his program for the third time in the last 12 months. Williams’ ease around Stewart and with comedy in general make it no surprise he’s asked back as a guest so often, but a possible slip by Stewart a couple minutes into their interview did offer a surprise.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams was the first of the Big 3 anchors to get on the ground in Haiti, and spent several days reporting on the damage and devastation.

We talked to Williams this week about the experience and the story, still dominating the evening news on a regular basis, in the latest Q&A in our “Back From Haiti” series.

Brian Williams is widely regarded as an objective, unbiased news anchor from his time on CNBC and MSNBC and during his run at NBC Nightly News.

But last night he let down his guard and revealed his bias – about baseball player (and now admitted steroid user) Mark McGwire.

Which reporter logged the most minutes of air time during from 2000-2009? The honor goes to Andrea Mitchell of NBC, according to the invaluable resource that is Andrew Tyndall‘s TyndallReport.com. Here’s a full breakdown.

Drop everything you are doing and pay tribute to Frank Buckles, the last living World War I veteran and who seems to be the nation’s oldest living veteran as well. He is 108 years old — and he is still fighting for what he believes in. And he went to Capitol Hill to do it.

Tonight NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams marked his five-year anniversary in the anchor chair after taking over from Tom Brokaw in 2004. Since then he’s covered Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, the Tsunami, and a hugely historic presidential election — all through probably the most tumultuous time in media since Chet Huntley and David Brinkley wished each other goodnight.

It’s been a big week for Brian Williams. Tonight, he guest-stars on 30 Rock. Last night, he emceed “Stand Up For Heroes,” the star-studded annual charity show benefiting wounded returning soldiers via the Bob Woodruff Foundation, sharing the stage with Elvis Costello and his idol Bruce Springsteen. Sunday, he returned from a week spent in [...]

The NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams won the 2008-2009 season – and was the only network newscast to gain viewers year-to-year.

The 2009-2010 season will see a big change, as Diane Sawyer assumes the anchor chair from Charlie Gibson on ABC’s World News. But after 13 seasons on top – will ABC or CBS be able to catch NBC?

Remember when an anchor stepping down was a huge deal? Tom Brokaw. Dan Rather. Peter Jennings. These names were huge pillars of the news ecosystem, and their departures were big stories — as well as the fraught issue of who had the gravitas to step into their anchorly shoes.

Oh, how things have changed. Today, the news that Charlie Gibson is leaving ABC’s World News after only a few years in the top spot is definitely news, but is shaking no foundations. It’s also not at all surprising who is replacing him: Diane Sawyer. Well, except that she’s a woman.