Ex-NBC anchor Brian Williams returns to TV for Pope visit
NEW YORK -- Former NBC News anchor Brian Williams will return to the air on Sept. 22 as part of MSNBC's coverage of Pope Francis' visit to the United States.
The network pinpointed the date on Thursday. It had been looking toward coverage of the pope's visit as the place to start him in his new job of covering breaking news stories during MSNBC's daylight hours.
Williams lost his job as anchor of NBC's "Nightly News" and was suspended for six months after a pattern emerged that he had lied about his role covering certain news stories. Lester Holt has taken over at "Nightly News" and maintained NBC's lead in the evening news ratings competition.
In June, NBC said that Brian Williams would not return to his job as "Nightly News" anchor following his suspension, but would be given a second chance with the company as a breaking news anchor at the cable network MSNBC.
Williams was suspended in February for falsely claiming he had been in a helicopter hit by enemy fire during the Iraq War. NBC launched an internal investigation that found Williams "made a number of inaccurate statements about his own role and experiences covering events in the field." Most of them were not on NBC News, but on talk shows or in public appearances.