Even Lester Holt didn't know what was going on while the Brian Williams scandal nearly burned down NBC News.  The NBC brass kept Holt uniformed during the nearly five months he filled in for the disgraced anchor. Finally, last week, the 55-year-old network news journeyman became NBC’s new news star as he was officially anointed the anchor of the flagship program, “Nightly News.”  BRIAN WILLIAMS TO RETURN AS PART OF MSNBC REVAMP  “The fact of the matter is that I wasn’t being told anything about (Williams),” Holt told the Daily News Monday, breaking his silence about the scandal. “For lack of a better term, there was a ‘firewall’ between me and all that. I accepted that my role was to fill in for six months, and there were never any discussions (with NBC executives) about where or what this all might lead to — so I tried to keep my head down.”  Holt said his biggest source for news about the Williams scandal were reports from sources outside of NBC News. “There were times that I tried not to read anything that was written about this whole situation, so of course I read everything. At some point I didn't know what to believe, but ultimately it kept coming back to keeping my head focused on the broadcast,” he says.  Ultimately, the embattled Williams lost his prestigious perch behind the anchor desk after an internal investigation revealed that he had spent years exaggerating his role in world events on talk shows, speaking engagements and at parties.  The two newsmen had traded some emails during Williams’ suspension, but they spoke last Thursday for the first time since the scandal.  BRIAN WILLIAMS STRIKES DEAL TO REMAIN AT NBC  Holt describes the conversation as “personal,” so he declined to give the details, but he did reveal that he and Williams are on solid ground as colleagues.  “It was a conversation that we both had been craving but didn't know how to initiate,” Holt says. “The bottom line is that we expressed our friendship to each other. We acknowledged that while some might see this as awkward, nothing that has transpired was between the two of us. We are friends and the best way to characterize it is that Brian and I are good.”  During the Williams suspension, Holt quickly became aware that he wasn’t merely filling in for Williams on television. “I was asked to lead the newsroom through this time and it was hard — especially in the first few days and weeks when all of those eyeballs were focused on us.”  'WORLD NEWS' FALLS SHORT OF #1 THANKS TO 'NIGHTLY NEWS'  He rose to the occasion with a no-nonsense approach, taking on the broadcast's arch-rival ABC’s “World News Tonight” and more than holding his own against it and its anchor, David Muir. For almost a year the two telecasts have been separated in the ratings weekly by a razor-thin margin. With Holt behind the desk, some weeks ABC wins, some weeks NBC wins, but on average about 7.8 million viewers tune in to each program. CBS’ “Evening News,” anchored by Scott Pelley, ranks third with about 6.4 million viewers.  “It’s a tight race in the evenings and I suspect it will remain that way going forward. But I like our chances,” Holt says. “Ratings are the only way of measuring the playing field — so I feel the pressure. But I also recognize that you have to do the broadcast that feels right to me and I think we’re there."  Taking over the anchor chair was not even a job that he was interested in, says Holt.  NBC STAFFERS KNEW BRIAN WILLIAMS EXAGGERATED THINGS  “This is not anything that I ever imagined,” says Holt of his new gig. “Like any young broadcaster, at one point in my life I said to myself that I wanted to be the next Walter Cronkite, or the anchor of a nighttime news show. But in recent years it’s not something that I’ve aspired to or thought about. There were only three of these jobs and they were all filled by capable and talent people. It wasn't even on my radar. I had cobbled together really terrific jobs here at NBC and had a pretty full plate.”  Holt has been a star at NBC for almost two decades. But if it’s possible to be in front of millions of eyeballs almost every day and still remain slightly under the radar, Holt pulled that off. In an industry in which so many with similar jobs can appear pompous and overpaid, Holt has never come across to anyone as flashy or snooty.  TOUGH TO WATCH BRIAN WILLIAMS SWEAT BULLETS ON TODAY  “You can't fault Lester,” says an NBC News colleague. “He's always been loved in the newsroom. He's always been a hard worker, humble. He's always come up with the goods. This couldn't have happened to better guy.”  Holt spent the 1980s as a reporter and anchor at WCBS/Ch. 2. But his career really took off in the 1990s when he was a popular, mustachioed, news anchor at CBS’ Chicago station, WBBM. There he became the go-to guy, dispatched to hot spots around the world including Iraq, Northern Ireland, Somalia, El Salvador and Haiti.  He joined MSNBC in 2000, and anchored “Lester Holt Live” a daily show where he covered breaking news and was the lead daytime anchor for MSNBC’s coverage of the disputed election of 2000. Holt also served as the lead anchor for daytime news and breaking news coverage on MSNBC - a role Williams will now take on.  “I was fortunate that — despite all this pressure — I was handed a successful broadcast and a crack staff,” he said. “So I’m grateful for that.”  The feeling is mutual for NBC, where Holt has basically been the news division’s human Swiss Army knife. He’s been the principal Anchor of "Dateline" since 2011, the weekend anchor for “Nightly News,” and the co-anchor of the weekend edition of “Today.” And until last Thursday when he was officially named the anchor of “Nightly,” Holt served as Williams’ main fill-in anchor and was a regular substitute on the weekday edition of “Today.”  With his promotion to “Nightly News” anchor, Holt says he’s reluctantly given up his weekend jobs.  'NBC NIGHTLY NEWS' RATINGS RISE UNDER LESTER HOLT  “I sadly said goodbye to the staffs at ‘Weekend Today' and ‘Weekend Nightly,’” he says. “I’ve come off of those broadcasts immediately.” But he is reluctant to walk away from his job as the primary anchor of "Dateline."  “That’s on a list of many things that are still up for discussion,” Holt says.  His dedication to the job, earned Holt the nickname "Ironpants" when he spent days anchoring MSNBC's coverage of the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and never seemed to leave the anchor chair.  The morning gig, especially speaks to the many layers of his personality. It's a job where anchors can show up their lighter side when the news is slow or quickly downshift into anchor mode when major stories are breaking. On "Today" viewers have seen him play the bass and electric guitar, and an elaborate instrument sits on his office floor — close enough to his desk chair to suggest that he picks it up plenty. Viewers have also seen Holt bust a move dressed as a Blues Brother with Al Roker. He's can rap (although not well) with Wendy Williams and even gets in on the joke sometimes: last year he "faked" a friendship with "Late Night" host Seth Meyers for a comedy sketch.  Holt's ascension into one of broadcasting's most elite jobs is news, too. He is the first African-American to be solo evening anchor on the major broadcast networks. (Max Robinson was the first black co-anchor in the late 1970s and early ’80s on "ABC World News Tonight.") And this breakthrough moment comes as Charleston is in the headlines, a horror story seething with racism and violence.  NEW YORKERS SAY THEY CAN TRUST BRIAN WILLIAMS  "I'm proud to have that historical recognition, I'm proud that so many people take pride in it and its significance," says Holt. "I'm not the kind of person who has identified myself through a racial lens professionally but I recognize the significance and how it comes at a time when right now there are a lot of issues about race in our country."  He says the covering the issue will be priority for "Nightly News" under his watch. "It's a story that we are committed to telling and it's a difficult one. We keep talking about this big conversation about race happening in America, but we need more than just a conversation."  He's a family man, too. Holt has been married to his wife Carol since 1982 and has two grown sons, Stefan, 28, and Cameron, 25, who works in finance in New York.  Stefan Holt, who followed his father into TV news and is a weekday morning anchor in Chicago was more even more succinct about his father's breakthrough: "Looking back at history, this is a big moment," Stefan Holt told CNN on Sunday. "But I would say that not any of us really define our careers just by race. As a news division you're not defined by one anchor or one report. If you look at NBC News, it's a really diverse team, and I'm glad my dad is a part of that diversity. I'm glad to be a part of that."  Lester Holt breathes some of the most rarified air in the media world, since his only two other professional peers are his broadcast news counterparts at ABC and CBS, David Muir and Scott Pelley. It's also one of the most stable spots in the media world, a place where anchors Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather stayed with us for years. Today, more than a half century into the evening network broadcast news era, we have what we've almost always had: three men telling us what happened today.  David Muir ("World News Tonight," ABC)  Muir took over from Diane Sawyer on Sept. 1, 2014. The youngest of the trio at 41, Muir joined ABC News in 2003 after winning multiple honors for his 9/11 reporting while he worked in Boston. Since he started the evening newscast, ABC has gained in the ratings, particularly among younger viewers. He carefully protects his privacy off the air, but that didn't stop People magazine last year from naming him one of the "Sexiest Men Alive."  Scott Pelley ("CBS Evening News")  Pelley started June 6, 2011, charged with putting the newscast back on track after the troubled Katie Couric era.  At 57, he's an old-school anchor, with an authoritative, no-nonsense manner. Before the "Evening News," he was White House correspondent, a frequent war reporter and a "60 Minutes" regular. The evening newcast has gained viewers since he took over.
Lester Holt talks about the scandal that almost destroyed NBC News — and the steady approach that saved it.