Will Brian Williams cancel on David Letterman on Thursday?
The NBC News anchor, at the center of a growing scandal over his recounting of an Iraq War mission in 2003, said on Saturday that he would take a hiatus from the evening news “for the next several days.”
But he is still scheduled to appear on CBS’ “Late Show with David Letterman,” a spokeswoman for the show said Sunday.
A source close to Williams said it is “undecided” if Williams will still appear on Letterman, saying the network hadn’t considered the question yet.
In 2013, Letterman’s show was one of the venues where Williams gave an account of the Iraq mission that has been called into question.
“Two of our four helicopters were hit by ground fire including the one I was in — RPG and AK-47,” Williams told Letterman.
“No kidding!” Letterman responded.
Williams was on a second helicopter, which did not come under RPG fire.
The possibility that Williams may return to the same late-night show where he exaggerated his Iraq story is intriguing, but also troubling, to some media critics.
“No offense to Letterman, but if Brian Williams wants to come clean, he should do an actual news interview,” Time magazine TV critic James Poniewozik wrote on Twitter.
New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen predicted, “Between now and Thursday’s scheduled appearance with Letterman, journalism is going to happen to Brian Williams.”
Williams is no stranger to the talk show circuit.
According to IMDB, he has appeared on Letterman’s program 21 times, on NBC’s “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” 18 times (including 6 appearances in Fallon’s slow jam the news segment) and on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” 13 times.
Williams has made 16 appearances on “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. He even once hosted NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”