NBC News announced that anchor Lester Holt will sit down with President Joe Biden in an exclusive interview on Monday in Austin, Texas.

The NBC interview comes as Biden fights to keep his candidacy alive following a devastating performance in a debate with Donald Trump that was conducted by CNN.

An unedited tape of the full interview will air during primetime, starting at 9 p.m. Monday evening on NBC. 

The special will also stream on NBC News Now.

Highlights from the interview will appear during NBC Nightly News earlier in the evening.

After the debate, Biden attempted to start a comeback with an interview on ABC with George Stephanopoulos.

The interview will also coincide with the opening of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

NBC Nightly News is turning 75 this week. Meghan Rafferty is executive producer on the program, the only female E.P. on the three evening broadcast newscasts. 

Rafferty joined NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt as senior producer in 2017 and has been executive producer since 2021. Before coming on board at NBC News, she spent a decade at CNN, where she produced The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Amanpour. She had interned on NBC’s Weekend Today back in 2006. 

Rafferty described her role on Nightly News as a “dream job.” 

“I love being able to inform so many Americans every evening and really help communicate the most important stories of the day to them,” she said. 

NBC Nightly News won the Edward R. Murrow Award for best newscast in 2022. Through June 4 in 2022-2023 season-to-date ratings, per Nielsen, ABC’s World News Tonight has averaged 8,201,000 total viewers, NBC Nightly News has 6,856,000 and CBS Evening News has averaged 4,974,000. In the 25-54 demo, ABC has 1,318,000, NBC has 1,113,000 and CBS 782,000.

For their part, CBS and ABC have also spent 75 years in the evening news game.

Rafferty spoke with B+C about NBC Nightly News’s milestone, how the newscast has evolved over the years, and how Lester Holt sets it apart. 

An edited transcript follows. 

BC: When you were an intern on Weekend Today, did you foresee a day when you would be exec producer on one of NBC’s newscasts?

Meghan Rafferty: Weekend Today was my first broadcast experience, and I loved every minute of it. It changed the course of my career. I definitely feel like that started the wheels turning on wanting to work in visual journalism. I just really loved the way that what we do communicates to viewers. That changed my life. The executive producers and the senior team at the time, I definitely dreamed of someday being able to follow in their footsteps.

BC: How has Nightly News evolved since you came on board six years ago? 

MR: What I learned during the pandemic especially is just to lean into that depth that viewers are craving, try to answer those questions that people have, and really capitalize on original reporting, which is what NBC News is doing widely. It’s a great time to be the EP, because there's so much to partner on with investigations, and there's just so much reporting happening. That's really what I want. 

What I strive every night to do is give viewers those most urgent breaking stories at the top of the show, but then also something that they might not expect, that they might not know, with our in-depth features in the later bits. That's what I love, weaving that all together every night. Working with those teams on those stories for months and months — it's a really cool experience.

BC: What does Nightly News offer that its competitors maybe don't do?

MR: It's that depth. We try to remember that people are getting information all day long. And so I really try to make sure that we have something that's distinct, that has original reporting, that has something exclusive, that has an interview that you won't see anywhere else. That's what I'm trying to give viewers, something that every night if they tune into Nightly, they're getting something different than what they've seen all day.

BC: With so many news sources outside of the evening newscasts available to consumers, do you wrestle with how to find and offer something different?

MR: What I try to do is just really focus on what we're able to give viewers because of the strength of our news organization. We have so many reporters, we have so much content being driven out of NBC News, and that's such a strength. There have always been a lot of [news] papers and sources and websites. But I think that what makes us so special is that we drive a lot of that journalism internally. And so when you see NBC News, you're getting something that is well reported. You're getting something different. You're getting a trusted brand, but you're also getting something that we're doing ourselves. 

It's something to be very proud of.

BC: How did the pandemic change the way the broadcast comes together? 

MR: I really try to center myself in thinking about what viewers across the country want–what they need to know, what they're curious about. That curiosity during the pandemic was just such a moment because I realized, we always know what we do is so important. Our job is to inform and to hold people accountable. That mission became so clear during the pandemic, and I just really try to make the time for that depth, make the time to answer those questions that people have, and remember that we have a very important mission and job to do, as far as informing people.

The pandemic also made us better collaborators–it broke down a lot of walls for us. It made us closer together, with our teams in different places, but it also made us realize the importance of working together and the strength of it. We all came closer together as an organization, and I think it's only made us stronger.

BC: Tell me about the stress of calling the shots on a live newscast. Does that get easier over time?

MR: I've worked in news for such a long time and I really just enjoy it. I love those moments up until the broadcast. I love covering breaking news. I love the months-long investigations. 

I don't get stressed, I just get very focused. 

BC: Any changes coming up, whether it's a new segment, new talent, anything new and different for Nightly News?

MR: What we just did, we're gonna keep doing, which I really love. We sent Lester to Florida two weeks ago. We planned a two-day, in-depth trip there to capitalize on getting Lester not just at the forefront of a hurricane or a disaster, but really return to a story. We want to keep doing that. 

We went to Fort Myers Beach. We spent months getting it together–an in-depth piece on insurance struggles that people were having on the ground there. And we got such an outpouring for doing it. We partnered with our affiliates on the ground, and we had the reporters contribute to the program.

We want to keep doing that, especially within the U.S. Going to our viewers and meeting them where they are, and telling the stories that resonate with viewers all around the country–it takes Lester out of the studio and gets him on the road, in the field as the reporter. Obviously we'll send him to all the breaking news that we do already, but he just really shines in the field. 

It’s a great way of going and seeing it for ourselves. It was very powerful doing that in Fort Myers Beach, seeing the rubble piled up, the houses that are condemned, eight months [after Hurricane Ian]. We're excited to do more of those trips.

BC: Tell me something about Lester that viewers may not know.

MR: He loves music and the depth of his knowledge about music, whether it's rock or jazz, it's just really astounding. We recently had John Fogerty on the show. He came into 30 Rock and played a jam with Lester. He actually got the play on stage with Fogerty at Radio City. It's just really cool to see that side of Lester because he is such a great musician and really appreciates other great musicians. Seeing the passion that Lester has for the arts is really a lot of fun. 

BC: How would you describe Lester performing on stage? Similar to how he is on the set?

MR: He is calm, cool and collected. I love working with him because he's so smart and he cares so much about what we do and how we do it. 

Meghan Rafferty has been named executive producer of NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. She’s been with NBC News for more than four years, and has been senior broadcast producer on the evening newscast. 

“Meghan has done a phenomenal job at the helm of the newscast during the last month,” said Noah Oppenheim, NBC News president. “She is a respected, trusted, exemplary leader with the keen news instincts and innovative vision that have been a huge part of Nightly’s recent successes and, in this new role, will help propel the broadcast to the next level.”

Rafferty succeeds Jenn Suozzo, who left NBC News last month. 

“As senior broadcast producer, Meghan has stepped up time and time again,” added Oppenheim. “She skillfully led the team through the unique challenges we faced during the onset of the pandemic and became a steadfast presence in the control room during those early days of uncertainty.”

NBC Nightly News averaged 7.32 million total viewers in the recently concluded season, behind ABC’s 8.74 million and ahead of CBS’s 5.4 million. 

ABC’s World News Tonight has won the 2019-2020 evening news race, the David Muir-anchored newscast averaging 9.39 million total viewers, and 1.88 million in the 25-54 demo, based on Nielsen Media Research. NBC Nightly News, anchored by Lester Holt, averaged 8.27 million total viewers, and drew 1.78 million in the 25-54 demo.

CBS Evening News, anchored by Norah O’Donnell, averaged 5.86 million total viewers and 1.1 million viewers 25-54.

World News Tonight rated a 6.1 in households while NBC Nightly News tallied a 5.3 and CBS Evening News a 3.8. 

ABC News said World News Tonight won every night of the year in total viewers, which it added that no network had done since the start of Nielsen’s electronic database in the 1991-1992 season.

Related: Pandemic Reshapes News Business

World News Tonight went up 9% in total viewers for the season and 9% in viewers 25-54. 

NBC Nightly News gained 4% for 2019-2020 in total viewers, reporting its best season since 2015-2016, according to NBC News, and 1% in viewers 25-54. 

CBS Evening News is up 28,000 total viewers season over season, and gained 5%  since it relocated to Washington, DC, in December 2019. O’Donnell called the DC move “a genius stroke” by CBS News President Susan Zirinsky, giving the newscast a front-row seat for President Trump’s impeachment, his handling of the pandemic, and countless other stories. 

Almin Karamehmedovic is the executive producer of World News Tonight. Jennifer Suozzo exec produces NBC Nightly News and Jay Shaylor exec produces CBS Evening News. 

Veteran TV news anchor Brian Williams will host a late night news program for MSNBC beginning Sept. 6.

The series, The 11th Hour With Brian Williams, will provide a “unique” look at the major political stories of the day, will be the first regularly scheduled show for the former ‘NBC Nightly News’ anchor on MSNBC since he joined the network a year ago.

The series is scheduled to run between Labor Day and the November Presidential election, said MSNBC.

Last year Williams lost his NBC Nightly News anchor slot after inaccurately recalling a story from the Iraq war in which he claimed he was on a helicopter that was shot at by ground fire.

“This new assignment is a natural extension of the hundreds of hours of political coverage Brian has anchored through this campaign cycle so far,” said MSNBC President Phil Griffin in a statement. “He and Rachel Maddow and the team have been great on the big nights, and now he’ll build on MSNBC’s primetime momentum by taking us live into the 11pm hour every night.”

MSNBC, bolstered by its Summer Olympics programming as well as its coverage of the 2016 Presidential campaign, finished the summer averaging 1.1 million viewers in primetime, up 86% compared to summer 2015, according to Nielsen. 

Suspended NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams will return to the air in August on MSNBC, with Lester Holt officially taking over Williams' anchor duties at Nightly News, NBC News announced.

Williams, who was suspended earlier this year for inaccurately recalling a story from the Iraq war in which he claimed he was on a helicopter that was shot at by ground fire, will head up the cable news network’s breaking news coverage, according to NBC.

“Brian now has the chance to earn back everyone’s trust. His excellent work over twenty-two years at NBC News has earned him that opportunity,” said Andy Lack, chairman of NBC News and MSNBC.

Lester Holt, who had been filling in for Williams since his suspension, has officially been named the new anchor of NBC Nightly News.

Willams joins a network struggling from the ratings front. MSNBC in May posted a 14% decline in its primetime audience with 470,000 viewers, well behind competitors CNN (587,000 viewers) and Fox News (1.6 million viewers), according to Nielsen. 

NBC News is suspending Brian Williams for six months. Lester Holt will remain in the anchor chair of Nightly News in Williams' absence. 

The suspension of the Nightly News anchor, who on Saturday announced that he was taking a leave of absence, comes four days after NBC News president Deborah Turness said the network was conducting an internal investigation into the veracity of Williams' account of an Iraqi war story.

"We have decided today to suspend Brian Williams as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News for six months. The suspension will be without pay and is effective immediately," said Turness. "We let Brian know of our decision earlier today. Lester Holt will continue to substitute Anchor the NBC Nightly News."

The swirl of controversy began last week after military newspaper Stars and Stripes found that Williams had been inaccurately recalling a story from the Iraq war in which he claimed he was on a helicopter that was shot at by ground fire.

Williams admitted to Stars and Stripes that he “misremembered” the 2003 tale, It's a story he has been relating for more than a decade, including to CBS Late Show host David Letterman in 2013. Williams apologized on the Feb. 4 broadcast of the Nightly News. 

Williams also came under fire for a 2005 Hurricane Katrina story in which he said he saw a dead body floating in the French Quarter.

Under Williams, who recently signed a new multiyear contract, Nightly News has been the most-watched evening newscast for over five years running.

Torness sent out the following memo to NBC News personnel on Tuesday night:

All,

We have decided today to suspend Brian Williams as Managing Editor and Anchor of NBC Nightly News for six months. The suspension will be without pay and is effective immediately.  We let Brian know of our decision earlier today. Lester Holt will continue to substitute Anchor the NBC Nightly News.

Our review, which is being led by Richard Esposito working closely with NBCUniversal General Counsel Kim Harris, is ongoing, but I think it is important to take you through our thought process in coming to this decision. 

While on Nightly News on Friday, January 30, 2015, Brian misrepresented events which occurred while he was covering the Iraq War in 2003. It then became clear that on other occasions Brian had done the same while telling that story in other venues. This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position.

In addition, we have concerns about comments that occurred outside NBC News while Brian was talking about his experiences in the field.

As Managing Editor and Anchor of Nightly News, Brian has a responsibility to be truthful and to uphold the high standards of the news division at all times.

Steve Burke, Pat Fili and I came to this decision together. We felt it would have been wrong to disregard the good work Brian has done and the special relationship he has forged with our viewers over 22 years.  Millions of Americans have turned to him every day, and he has been an important and well-respected part of our organization.

As I’m sure you understand, this was a very hard decision. Certainly there will be those who disagree.  But we believe this suspension is the appropriate and proportionate action.

This has been a difficult time. But NBC News is bigger than this moment. You work so hard and dedicate yourselves each and every day to the important work of bringing trusted, credible news to our audience. Because of you, your loyalty, your dedication, NBC News is an organization we can – and should - all be proud of. We will get through this together.

Steve Burke asked me to share the following message.

“This has been a painful period for all concerned and we appreciate your patience while we gathered the available facts. By his actions, Brian has jeopardized the trust millions of Americans place in NBC News.  His actions are inexcusable and this suspension is severe and appropriate.  Brian’s life’s work is delivering the news. I know Brian loves his country, NBC News and his colleagues. He deserves a second chance and we are rooting for him.  Brian has shared his deep remorse with me and he is committed to winning back everyone’s trust.”

Deborah