Brian Williams Nudges NBC to The Top With A Light Touch

"I'm up there with my chisel day after day. Someone who hasn't seen me in a while comes to South Dakota and says, 'You've totally refurbished Jefferson's nose, it's beautiful.' If the result of our chiseling is positive, that's great. We've got two very good chiselers chasing us."

But Wallace, who took the job a year ago, had her own tool kit. She streamlined the opening (which had included the names of every previous anchor dating back to John Cameron Swayze) for a simple shot of Williams billboarding the night's top stories (followed by Michael Douglas voicing the intro). And she carved out time for Williams to chat with his correspondents instead of just tossing to taped reports.

"I'm always trying to slow the program down a little bit because it allows Brian to do more of his own writing, so we're not rushing to tell you 40 things at once," she says.

That, says Capus, a former "Nightly News" producer, can be "a tricky proposition. We've tried to allow for Brian's fingerprints to show up more on the broadcast. The let-Brian-be-Brian conversation is one we often have."

But which Brian? The serious, somewhat formal presence on the evening news? The genial debate moderator? The guy who played a hunky Joisey fireman on "SNL"?

The change is most visible in his lighter items, such as one on the reopening of Washington's Old Soldiers' Home (where, the anchor noted, Lincoln "even mapped out the Civil War in the parlor") and Polaroid ending production of instant film ("Let's not forget waving the still-wet picture back and forth").

When William F. Buckley Jr. died, Williams told viewers: "He had an ego as expansive as his intellect, and he loved a lot of things, chief among them the Republican Party, the Catholic Church, controversy, sailing, debating, playing the harpsichord and peanut butter, one of many areas where he considered himself an expert." Williams knew this because they discovered their shared passion when he visited the commentator's Connecticut home and later received a case of Buckley's favorite brand.

Still, says Williams, "some nights it's a straight recitation [of news], because there's no wiggle room between the must-run stories." He is known for his round-the-clock schedule, often peppering his staff with e-mails at 1 a.m.

Williams also tries to connect with an online audience through his daily blog. When the British media were found to have suppressed news of Prince Harry's mission to Afghanistan, Williams recalled withholding military information during a trip to Iraq. When Fidel Castro stepped down, he reflected on his last visit to Cuba.

For the February sweeps, Williams averaged 9.5 million viewers to Gibson's 9.3 million; Couric trailed with just under 7 million. Not that anyone at NBC has broken out the bubbly. Williams says he learned of the win when he read the company press release. "We're all superstitious people," Wallace says of the lack of celebration.

A key consolation prize for ABC is that "World News" has won the last two sweeps among viewers 25 to 54, the demographic most prized by advertisers.

"You think the presidential race is competitive?" says Jon Banner, executive producer of "World News." "I think the evening news is just as competitive. We've been trading wins back and forth, especially in the key demographic. This is a tie ballgame. Our political coverage is top-notch, and Charlie is having a great time."