NBC to Meet with Affiliates, Advertisers Today, Will Likely Dance Around BriWi Topic

GM's from NBC's 222 affiliated stations will meet later today to hear from the parent network.

They will hear about new shows, planned promotions and other topics from the mothership. 

What they will likely not hear about, will be the future of NBC Anchor Brian Williams. 

It is likely they will hear that NBC News’s chief investigative producer Richard Esposito and NBC Universal general counsel Kim Harris are still putting the finishing touches on their Williams review, assembling facts and talking to witnesses—the anchor’s on-air colleagues, producers, camera operators and sound technicians, among others.

It will be more stalling by NBC as they try and figure out what to do with the lying Anchorman.

Also, starting today is NBC's slot at the Upfronts at Radio City Music Hall.

A usually extravagant presentation in which Brian Williams has participated in the past. Don't look for BriWi to be there today. 

The Daily Beast writes that Williams’s attorney, Robert Barnett, “is fighting tooth and nail to get him his job back”—not negotiating a partial payout of Williams’s reported $50 million 5-year contract, according to an NBC News veteran—the anchor is likely not hearing what he needs to hear.

“It’s a tricky area,” this one insider said, “Sometimes a hired gun will tell you what you want to hear. If Brian’s goal is a comeback, the hired gun’s goal is a comeback. They say, ‘it won’t be pretty, but we can fix this, we can make this happen.’ They’re not going to say, ‘Look, buddy, you have got to get a grip on reality. You are gonna continue to be tabloid fodder, and if you think you’ve had it bad so far, your return to NBC is gonna be a total shit show.’”

Another wrinkle, and not a trivial one, is that the 55-year-old Holt, a respected and well-liked figure among his colleagues, has narrowly lost in the Nielsens in recent weeks to ABC World News Tonight anchor David Muir, but he has managed to stay in the game—with zero promotion.

So, while the NBC affiliate GM's and the advertisers at the Upfronts would love to hear what NBC plans are for Brian Williams, they will likely get the same song and dance we have been getting for months from the Peacock.

Stay tuned...