Brian Williams Rock Center: I'm Your Vehicle, Baby!

"There is a runway for his brand of abnormal normalcy. He’s just like us, only better, or at least more famous. . . . Williams is someone we all seem to hold in common, not because he is Uncle Walt, but because he reflects an appealing mash-up of earnestness and knowingness." NYT media scribe David Carr pimping Rock Center, the new vehicle for NBC News anchor and Vanity Fair International Best-Dressed listee Brian Williams.

But, to quote Shakespeare, if past is prologue, Carr: "The history of serious attempts at a newsmagazine is characterized by brave rhetoric followed by abundant carnage. Remember that “Dateline” and “48 Hours” rolled out with great fanfare before sliding into the slime of sexual predators and reheated celebrity tawdriness."

NBC has invested a lot in rock solid talent (bad day at Black Rock with producers poached from rival CBS 60 Minutes), and dough in the 10p newsmag show debuting Halloween night.