Michael Douglas becomes intro voice of NBC ‘Nightly News’
Posted on December 18th, 2007 by Hot Momma
With little fanfare, Michael Douglas, 63, became the new announcer to introduce Brian Williams on the Nightly News each night. His recorded introduction was first heard Monday.
“A word about the new voice you heard at the top of the broadcast tonight,” Williams remarked at the close of Monday night’s newscast.
“Yes, that is the great Michael Douglas, actor, producer, and Academy Award winner. Michael replaces the recording of the great Howard Reig, the voice of Nightly News for decades. Howard retired two years ago, but starting tonight, and hereafter, we welcome Michael Douglas as a rather prominent new member of the NBC News family.”
NBC did not immediately issue a news release about how the decision to replace Reig with Douglas was reached and comes as somewhat of surprise given the network’s strenuous efforts to avoid accusations of bias. Douglas is a heavy contributor to the Democratic party, and he regularly narrates films about social and political issues, such as U.N. documentaries about Sierra Leone and disarmament. But it seems that Brian Williams wanted Douglas to be the one introducing him:
“I appealed to Michael’s sense of romance and sentimentality and his love of the industry,” Williams said Tuesday. “I called him and said, ‘On top of all you’ve done as an actor, producer and Academy Award winner, this will mean a small slice of immortality in our industry. It also means wherever you are on Earth, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, you’ll know your voice is on the air.’”
That sold him, apparently. Douglas fills a role that on CBS is handled by Walter Cronkite, whose taped voice introduces Katie Couric each night.
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