But Tom Decides to Stay

As the Fred Silverman saga unfolded at the corporate level last week, a play-within-a-play held the stage at NBC News. The theme was strikingly similar: Will he stay or will he go? The protagonist: boyish Tom Brokaw, 41, for five years the button-bright host of the Today show.

Months ago, as Brokaw approached the renewal date of his contract, he began giving his NBC bosses the jitters by holding earnest discussions with rival networks CBS and ABC. NBC, lagging in third place in the superheated evening-news ratings race, could ill afford to lose an asset like Brokaw. Just how far the network was willing to go to keep him became clear with last week's announcement that Brokaw will take over John Chancellor's anchor slot on NBC's Nightly News. The precedent-shattering deal was reportedly for as much as $15 million in salary and benefits over seven years, making Brokaw the highest paid TV newscaster in history.* Said a weary Brokaw when all the negotiating was over: "In a way it was the most emotional thing I have done since I decided to get married."

There was no dearth of seductive offers. CBS reportedly talked to Brokaw about 60 Minutes and its planned, half-hour Up to the Minute, an afternoon news show aimed at women. ABC News President Roone Arledge, according to one insider, "went after Brokaw money, marbles and chalk," in an attempt to sign him up for ABC's multiple-anchor World News Tonight team, which occasionally includes the fast-rising Ted Koppel. But NBC responded in kind. The top brass urged a willing Chancellor to give up his New York anchor position by April 1982, six months earlier than planned, to make way for Brokaw. After discussions with NBC News President Bill Small, Nightly News Washington Co-Anchor Roger Mudd, who went to NBC in a huff after losing the CBS anchor spot to Rather less than two years ago, waived a contractual option to be sole heir to Chancellor's position.

Finally, it was the eleventh-hour intercession of Thornton Bradshaw, the new head of NBC's parent company RCA, that seems to have convinced Brokaw. After a sleepless weekend at a retreat on Long Island--and a sharp reminder from his 13-year-old daughter at summer camp to "let me know what you decide; I don't want to have to read it in the newspapers"--Brokaw made his choice. Said he: "I have been here for 15 years. I just couldn't find enough reasons to walk out the door."

With Mudd in Washington and Brokaw in New York, Chancellor will occupy himself with special projects and add an Eric Sevareid-style commentary to the news several times a week beginning next April. NBC has also talked about extending the Nightly News to an hour, giving Brokaw the time and latitude to produce special reports in addition to his anchor duties. How much control Brokaw and Mudd will exert over editorial content, however, is still up in the air in NBC's front office. Brokaw is optimistic: "We're not there just to read the news."

When Brokaw takes up his expanded duties, a new, younger generation of anchormen will mostly be in place at all three networks. Says Today show Executive Producer Steve Friedman: "It is time for the Rathers, the Brokaws, the Koppels to take the torch. Brokaw and Mudd are going to be the Huntley and Brinkley of the '80s." But CBS News President Bill Leonard cautions that after the wooing is over, friction can develop: "It's always more complicated when people get married. There's potential for a marvelous marriage--and for all kinds of trouble."

* CBS's Dan Rather ranks second, with a reported $8 million over a five-year period.

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