Updated April 17, 2026, 2:27 p.m. ET
Former “NBC Nightly News” and MSNBC anchor Brian Williams is returning to TV screens since leaving NBC, the place he grew to become a mainstay for 28 years.
Williams, 66, will host a brand-new podcast on Netflix, “where viewers will see a side of him they’ve never seen before — unscripted, unhurried, and utterly himself.”
The podcast, titled “We’re Back! With Brian Williams,” will encompass the longtime information anchor conversing with the “most interesting figures shaping popular culture,” together with actors, writers, musicians, athletes, journalists and surprising newsmakers, in accordance to the streaming service.
“With scientists predicting that every American will have a podcast by 2030, I thought it was time to get in the game,” Williams stated in a press release. “After 40 years in the news business, where an in-depth interview gets 4 minutes of airtime at best, I just want to have interesting conversations with creative, funny, smart, talented, and consequential people — like the shows we all grew up watching and listening to. Netflix is the perfect home.”
This is the first time viewers will regularly see Williams since he announced his departure from NBC on the final episode of “The eleventh Hour with Brian Williams,” which aired on Dec. 9, 2021.
“I’ve been actually blessed,” Williams wrote in a memo to NBC staffers in 2021. “I’ve been allowed to spend virtually half of my life with one firm. NBC is part of me and all the time will probably be.”
Here’s what to find out about Williams’ new gig.
When will Brian Williams’ podcast premiere?
As of April 17, Netflix has not announced a release date for Williams’ podcast.
Netflix said four-time Emmy winner Jonathan Wald, who previously worked with Williams at NBC News and went on to oversee “Election Night Live with Brian Williams,” will executive produce the podcast. At Will Media will be producing the podcast, with At Will’s Will Malnati and Ashley Taylor serving as executive producers alongside Wald.
Brian Williams apologizes for story embellishments
The move to Netflix comes after NBC conducted a six-month internal investigation in 2015 that found Williams made several false and embellished statements about his previous reporting experiences. One notable distortion that led to Williams’ eventual reassignment as a breaking news anchor for MSNBC was his recounting of time covering the 2003 Iraq War, where he said a helicopter was hit by an RPG when it was not, PBS and the Washington Post reported.
In a statement at the time, NBC said an “in depth assessment discovered that Williams made numerous inaccurate statements about his personal function and experiences protecting occasions within the subject. The statements in query didn’t, for essentially the most half, happen on NBC News platforms or within the quick aftermath of the information occasions, however somewhat on late-night packages and through public appearances, often years after the information occasions in query.”
Following the investigation and Williams’ subsequent demotion, he apologized for his falsifications.
“I’m sorry,” Williams told former NBC “Today” host Matt Lauer during an interview in 2015. “I’m sorry for what occurred. I’m completely different consequently, and I count on to be held to a special normal.”
Contributing: Charles Trepany/ USA TODAY
