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Following Tim Russert’s Death, NBC Mulls Replacements

Following the sudden death of Meet the Press moderator Tim Russert, names of potential successors have been bandied about, including evening news anchor Brian Williams, correspondents David Gregory and Andrea Mitchell, MSNBC hosts like Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough and Keith Olberman, and Katie Couric.

“Nobody should even think about replacing Tim Russert,” Jeff Zucker, president of NBCU, told The New York Times. “What someone will need to do is find the next way to do ‘Meet the Press’ and provide political analysis. Anybody who thinks they can replace Tim Russert is kidding themselves.”

Meet the Press has been a source of prestige for NBC under Russert’s leadership. The show generates tens of millions of dollars in profit every year.

In addition to moderating television’s most successful political talk show, Russert was chief of NBC’s Washington bureau and NBC’s public face on politics - he appeared regularly on the Today show, the Nightly News and MSNBC. The network will have a difficult time replacing Russert in his many roles. “They’ve got to find someone who understands as much about politics as Tim does and there aren’t many people who do,” said Bob Schieffer, Russert’s competitor for the past 20 years on CBS’s Face the Nation.

NBC may name former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw as a temporary replacement for Russert on Meet the Press.

NBCU plans at least three hours of live prime time coverage during each convention on NBC, and 20 hours a day on MSNBC. Russert would have been a constant presence as an analyst alongside Brian Williams during those hours.