NBC News chief says no plans yet for Brian Williams MSNBC Show

LOS ANGELES — Despite his rehabilitation campaign of doing fairly well handling breaking news on MSNBC and a brief recent return to NBC News, it is unlikely Brian Williams will receive his own MSNBC show — right now.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, NBC News chief Andy Lack said he was pleased with the progress the disgraced former "NBC Nightly News" anchor has made since coming back on the air this fall to handle breaking news and special events for MSNBC, but that it was too early to move forward with bigger plans.

"We're just not looking at it," Lack told Daily Beast. "There always could be, would be, because he's Brian, but that's not where the focus is. The focus, particularly for this news cycle, which feels so intense when you go from Paris to San Bernardino before you can blink."

In the interview, Lack also said he had "cautious optimism" that the scheduled Feb. 26 Republican debate on NBC and Telemundo would go on as planned, despite criticism of CNBC's handling of its October debate, as well as the media's coverage of Donald Trump and the ratings revival for NBC morning news show "Today."