The Huntley–Brinkley Report

Overview

By 1956, NBC executives were unhappy with John Cameron Swayze’s evening news program after it fell behind CBS’s Douglas Edwards with the News the previous year. Network executive Ben Park suggested replacing Swayze with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, who had earned positive attention anchoring NBC’s coverage of that summer’s political conventions. Bill McAndrew, NBC’s news director, had noticed a successful local news format on NBC affiliate WSAZ-TV in Huntington, West Virginia, using one anchor in Huntington and another in Charleston—a setup still used by that station.

The Huntley-Brinkley Report debuted on October 29, 1956, with Huntley in New York and Brinkley in Washington. Producer Reuven Frank, who had pushed for the pair to cover the conventions, thought using two anchors for a regular news program was one of the worst ideas he had ever heard. Huntley handled most of the news most nights, while Brinkley focused on Washington topics like the White House, Congress, and the Pentagon. When one anchor was on vacation, the other typically did the full broadcast alone.

The closing credits featured the second movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, from a 1952 recording by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra. At first, the program lost viewers compared to Swayze’s show, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower made known his displeasure with the change. By summer 1957, it had no advertisers. As the content improved, it earned critical praise and a growing audience, and by 1958 it had caught up with CBS’s program. A major boost came in June 1958 when Texaco began buying all its advertising, a deal that lasted three years.

In popular culture

The Huntley–Brinkley Report was spoofed on Sam and Friends using puppets Hank and Frank, who lip-synced to the newscasters’ audio. Tom Lehrer’s song “So Long Mom (A Song for World War III)” includes the line “While we’re attacking frontally watch Brinkaly and Huntaly recounting contrapuntally the cities we have lost.”