Report: CBS News used Brian Williams as leverage in renewing Norah O'Donnell's contract at a lower salary

The Daily Beast

According to The Daily Beast, CBS News co-president Neeraj Khemlani floated a story of the former NBC Nightly News anchor being in contention to replace the third-place O'Donnell as anchor of CBS Evening News in an effort to re-sign her at a much lower salary. In retaliation, O'Donnell's agent tried to get new CNN boss Chris Licht, who previously worked at CBS as Stephen Colbert's executive producer, to pitch her for a CNN gig. But Licht rebuffed her because he couldn't negotiate before starting his new job on Monday. Asked to respond, Khemlani said in a statement: “This is wrong. I never met with Brian Williams about the Evening News. Period.”