Brian Williams To Make First Late-Night Appearance Since Embellishment Scandal

First on LateNighter: One of Late Night with Seth Meyers’ guests next week is no stranger to TV, but his appearance on a late-night show marks something of a long-awaited homecoming.

Meyers will welcome former NBC News anchor Brian Williams on Wednesday, November 20. His visit will mark Williams’ first time appearing on a late-night program since the embellishment scandal that stripped him of his duties as host of NBC Nightly News nearly a decade ago.

Williams’ last visit to a late-night show came in January 2015, when he was the lead guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Just two weeks later, Williams would tell a story on NBC Nightly News about being on a helicopter that was “hit by an RPG” while covering the Iraq War in 2003. That story turned out to be false. Williams apologized on the program days later, chalking it up to a mistake. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another,” he explained.

Despite the apology, Williams was suspended without pay for six months. He never returned to his post as Nightly News anchor, instead being moved to MSNBC.

In reality, Williams was in a chopper that had to be grounded due to a sandstorm, while a copter thirty minutes ahead of his had taken on fire. (While Williams’ first accounts in the months after it happened were seemingly more accurate, he was claiming to have been on the fired-upon craft by the time he visited Late Show with David Letterman in 2013.)

To some, Williams’ scandal wasn’t helped by the newsman’s penchant for leaning into less serious late-night entertainment fare. Before the controversy, the anchor was a frequent face on late night, making over a dozen appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, twice as many on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, 18 visits to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and over 20 more on Late Show with David Letterman.

Williams even hosted Saturday Night Live in 2007, appearing in sketches like “Bronx Beat” and the SNL Digital Short “Brian Diaries” (and almost performing a Julio Iglesias impression.)

While that’s further into comedy than most network news anchors might traditionally go, The Lonely Island did recently reveal that Williams was sensitive about maintaining the dignity of NBC News while filming the Digital Short, refusing to do certain jokes while shown behind his Nightly News desk in order to maintain its integrity.

A month after Williams was suspended from NBC News, a New York magazine article claimed that the news anchor had recently been setting his sights on a full-time late-night gig. Williams had reportedly eyed Leno’s Tonight Show desk and Letterman’s Late Show post. (He had even hoped his prime-time news magazine program Rock Center “might develop into a variety show,” the article said.)

Williams retired from NBC News altogether in 2022. Most recently, he presided over election night coverage for Amazon Prime Video, earning positive reviews.