NEW YORK, Dec 1 (AFP) - Veteran US news anchor Tom Brokaw was to step down Tuesday after 21 years in the job, leaving an industry that has been transformed in the past decade by the advent of cable news and the Internet.
One of the "big three" anchors known to millions of Americans, Brokaw, 66, took the NBC Nightly News from last place in the network ranking to the number one slot during his two decades in the job.
Brokaw's departure has been somewhat overshadowed by the surprise announcement by rival anchor Dan Rather, 73, of CBS that he will also step down in March.
Rather had come under fire for a recent report that relied on dubious documents to question President George W. Bush's military service.
That will leave only Peter Jennings, 66, of ABC among the generation of anchors that provided the face of evening news during the 1980s and 1990s.
The passing of the baton comes after 10 years of steady ratings decline for network news, in the face of competition from the 24-hour cable news channels, CNN, FOX and MSNBC.
The arrival of cable broke the monopoly the three networks had enjoyed in television news, which had turned their anchors into stars in their own right.
At the beginning of the 1980s, nightly newscasts by the three network stations collectively commanded 84 percent of viewers nationwide -- more than double their current rating.