Chet Huntley and David Brinkley redefine television news coverage as they begin their 14 year run on NBC October 29th, 1956, in Television History.
Television news began to emerge as a force in the late 1950's as viewers began to appreciate the immediacy of the medium due in large part to the leap in technology that allowed live coverage of events using video, but also from the personalities who presented the day's events at the dinner hour. Two NBC reporters, Chet Huntley of Montana, and David Brinkley of North Carolina livened NBC's coverage of the otherwise bland Democratic and Republican Conventions in 1956. They were considered contenders to take over the current NBC evening newscast which was at the time hosted by John Cameron Swayze. NBC News Director Bill McAndrews suggested that the two reporters share the anchoring duties, with Huntley reporting national news from New York and Brinkley reporting political news from Washington. Producer Rueven Frank initially did not like the idea, but was persuaded to try the idea. In this era, the ratings race was a two way contest between CBS and NBC, and CBS, with Douglas Edwards with the News, was winning. Rueven Frank is credited with creating the now famous sign off where the two ended each broadcast by bidding each other goodnight. Their signature closing, "Goodnight, Chet", "Goodnight David, and goodnight from NBC News," became an oft satirized and imitated phrase by comedians in the 1960's. After a slow start, the matter-of-fact delivery of Huntley and the dry witted comments by Brinkley proved to be an engaging combination and NBC's Huntley-Brinkley Report began to win the ratings race.
The program received a big boost when, in June, 1958, Texaco began sponsoring the entire show, an arrangement that continued for three years. By 1965, the program was the highest grossing show on television. On November 15 of that year, The Huntley-Brinkley Report became the first weekday network evening news program to be broadcast in color.
Though they were on the air on the same program for 14 years, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were not close friends, but rather professional colleagues who were successful in making NBC News number one for several years in the late 1950's and early 1960's
The Huntley-Brinkley Report ratings slipped late in the decade as CBS's Walter Cronkite gained fame for his coverage of the space program, a field neither Huntley nor Brinkley had much interest in. Some contemporary observers at NBC felt the program began to slip after a 1967 strike by members of AFTRA. Brinkley honored the picket lines, but Huntley, who viewed himself as "a newsman, not a performer" did not, remaining at the anchor desk. This split puzzled viewers, who had come to admire them for their teamwork. In reality, Huntley and Brinkley were colleagues on air, but had mostly a professional relationship, seldom communicating with each other outside of their television hand-offs.
On February 16, 1970, NBC announced that Chet Huntley would retire later that year. The final Huntley-Brinkley Report aired on July 31, 1970. Brinkley continued on, pairing with John Chancellor and Frank McGee for some years. Chancellor took over the anchor duties totally in 1976. Brinkley was moved into a commentator's role at NBC until his retirement in 1981. Chet Huntley lived only three years after his retirement. He worked his own ranch in his native Montana until his death in 1974.
David Brinkley went on to work for ABC for another 16 years where he hosted This Week with David Brinkley. He retired from ABC in 1998 and died in 2003.
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