The Huntley–Brinkley Report

[4] Network executive Ben Park suggested replacing Swayze with Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, who had garnered favorable attention anchoring NBC's coverage of the national political conventions that summer.Producer Reuven Frank, who had advocated pairing Huntley and Brinkley for the convention coverage, thought using two anchors on a regular news program "was one of the dumber ideas I had ever heard.[8] Critics considered Huntley to possess one of the best broadcast voices ever heard, and Brinkley's dry, often witty, newswriting presented viewers a contrast to the often sober output from CBS News.In fact, aside from their sign-off, Huntley and Brinkley's only communication came when one anchor finished a story and handed off to the other by saying the other's name, a signal to an AT&T technician to switch the long-distance transmission lines from New York to Washington or vice versa.Unbeknownst to most viewers, that relationship was fairly limited—Huntley and Brinkley operated from different cities and rarely met in person, except for live coverage of political conventions, election nights, or a few other events.On July 19, 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission, both co-anchored live (Huntley and Brinkley were commentators during NBC's coverage of the historic Moon landing, again with McGee as anchor).Tom Lehrer's bitterly satirical So Long Mom (a Song for WWIII) mentions the pair: "While we're attacking frontally watch Brinkaly and Huntaly recounting contrapuntally the cities we have lost..."
Chet Huntley (right) at NBC News' New York headquarters and David Brinkley on screen in Washington, D.C., June 1963.
Huntley (left) and Brinkley (right) in 1965
Chet HuntleyDavid BrinkleyLudwig van BeethovenCamel News CaravanNBC Nightly NewsTexacoNew York CityWashington, D.C.CBS Evening NewsWalter CronkiteReuven FrankEliot FrankelDouglas Edwards with the NewsBill McAndrewNBC NewsWSAZ-TVHuntington, West VirginiaWhite HouseU.S. Congressthe PentagonBeethoven's Ninth SymphonyArturo ToscaniniNBC Symphony OrchestraDwight D. EisenhowerPeabody AwardEmmy AwardsFrank SinatraMilton BerleNewsweekWorld War IIITom Lehrerattacking frontallycontrapuntallySammy Davis Jr.Frank McGeeApollo 11Sander VanocurABC NewsThis WeekJim HensonSam and FriendsWRC-TVWashington, DCKermitWalter BaldersonRobert ConleyFrank, Reuven