Report: Andy Lack, NBC Talks "Advanced"

Andy Lack

Former NBC News boss Andy Lack is in “advanced” talks to rejoin the company in a role that would oversee all ­NBCUniversal news operations, several people have confirmed to The NYPost.

News of the talks prompted speculation that Lack, a good friend of Brian Williams, the exiled anchor of the network’s “Nightly News,” will push early to get the fact-challenged newsman back on the air.

“Andy Lack wouldn’t come back without Brian,” said a source friendly with both executives.
“This is all about saving Brian,” the source added. “It is a sign how troubled things are [at NBC] that [Lack] is returning.”

Williams was suspended without pay for six months by NBC News President Deborah Turness and her boss, Patricia Fili-Krushel, head of the NBCUniversal News Group, after he claimed to have been on a helicopter that took enemy fire as he flew in a war zone in Iraq.

“Lack is very well-respected, he’s a showman with a big ego and he’s a screamer,” said a news executive.

Plus, New York magazine is about to publish an unflattering critique of NBC News and its management, sources said.

Lack ran NBC News in the 1990s, joining shortly after the “Dateline NBC” “Waiting to Explode” debacle in 1992. He later ran Sony Music Entertainment and Bloomberg’s TV operations.

Lack was most recently CEO of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (he resigned Wednesday after just six weeks on the job), which runs radio service “Voice of America.”

Read More Now