page_title: NBC Nightly News
section_title: Tom Brokaw (1982–2004)
hierarchical_section_title: NBC Nightly News / History / Tom Brokaw (1982–2004)
caption_attribution_description: English: THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW. Vladimir Putin and Tom Brokaw before an interview to NBC television network.Русский: МОСКВА, КРЕМЛЬ. С телеведущим Томом Брокау перед началом интервью американской телекомпании «Эн-би-си».
context_page_description: NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network in the United States. First aired on August 3, 1970, the program is currently the second most watched network newscast in the United States, behind ABC's World News Tonight. NBC Nightly News is produced from Studio 3C at NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City. Select Los Angeles-based editions broadcast from The Brokaw News Center in Universal City, California, or when broadcasting from Washington, D.C., either from the NBC News bureau based at WRC-TV in the Tenleytown neighborhood, or NBC's secondary studio overlooking Capitol Hill.
  Since 2015, the broadcast has been anchored by Lester Holt on weeknights, José Díaz-Balart on Saturday and Kate Snow on Sunday. Previous anchors have included John Chancellor, David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams.
  The program is broadcast live over most NBC stations from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m.
context_section_description: On April 5, 1982, Tom Brokaw, who had been serving as anchor of Today since 1976, joined the program and took over co-anchor duties in New York City, while Roger Mudd became anchor in Washington. Mudd was dropped from the broadcast and Brokaw became the solo anchor of Nightly News on September 5, 1983, the same day that his ABC competitor, Peter Jennings, became sole anchor of World News Tonight. With Brokaw being the sole anchor, the Nightly News was now completely based in New York City. Among other news items, he covered the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, EDSA Revolution, Loma Prieta earthquake, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and Hurricane Andrew. As anchor, Brokaw conducted the first one-on-one American television interviews with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was the only network anchor in Berlin when the Berlin Wall fell. Brokaw's presence slowly attracted viewers, and during the 1990s, Nightly News battled for the viewership lead with World News Tonight. He and Katie Couric hosted a prime-time newsmagazine, Now with Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric, that aired from 1993 to 1994 before being folded into the multi-night Dateline NBC program. By 1997, NBC Nightly News had solidified its first place standing in the ratings, a spot it would retain solely for ten years. The once-dominant CBS Evening News, anchored by Dan Rather, had lost a substantial portion of the audience it held during the Walter Cronkite era and slid to third place (where it still remains as of 2017) in the viewership wars.
  On September 11, 2001, Brokaw joined Katie Couric and Matt Lauer around 9:30 a.m., following the live attack on the South Tower of the World Trade Center, and continued to anchor all day, until after midnight. Following the collapse of the second tower, Brokaw said:
  This is war.  This is a declaration and an execution of an attack on the United States.
  On May 28, 2002, Brokaw announced his retirement as anchor of Nightly News, to take effect shortly after the Presidential election in 2004. During this last time helming the network's Presidential election coverage, NBC graphic designers created images of a giant electoral map on the ice rink at Rockefeller Plaza, and cherry pickers tallied the electoral vote count on the facade of 30 Rockefeller Plaza (this tradition has continued with each election since then). Brokaw's final broadcast took place on December 1, 2004, ending 22 years on the Nightly News desk and a 21-year run as the network's chief newsman – a record tenure in NBC's history.
caption: Brokaw with Vladimir Putin before an interview on June 2, 2000.
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