Hey, what
does a brother have to do to get some respect around here, huh?

As I
reported yesterday (HERE) Lester Holt no longer has to worry about Brian
Williams returning to reclaim his anchor job on "NBC Nightly News" since he
won’t be coming back.

After an internal
investigation, the network has realized that it would be a very bad move to put
Williams back at his old job, and since ratings have remained solid, in his absence, for the newscast, why spoil a good thing?

However, there now seems to be a sticking point with Holt and the network in terms of
his salary. Rightfully so, Holt and his agents now want what Williams was getting – $10 million a year for five years. Some at the network are reluctant.
According to one inside source: “Lester hasn’t ‘been there’ yet.”

Currently, Holt is getting $4 million a year, which is surprisingly low, considering all
the years and work he’s done for the network – hosting the weekend newscast,
sub-hosting on "Nightly News" and "The Today Show," hosting "Dateline NBC" and
other reporting duties. One can literally argue that Holt has done more, and works
a lot harder that either Williams or Matt Lauer, who gets $20 million a year, for
two hours of work, 4 days a week.

In fact, the
network even pays for a helicopter for Lauer to fly back and forth from his 40
acre horse farm in the Hamptons to the studio, yet they can’t pay Holt a lousy
$10 million?

Like I said, what
does a brother have to do to get some respect around here?

As another insider
at NBC is quoted as saying, “There’s a lot of drama at (the network)… Lester’s
team feels that, if he gets half of what Williams was making… the message to him
and the newsroom is he’s half the anchor Brian was.”

However, Holt
does have the advantage, and despite the fact that his current contract may be locked
in, he can legally renegotiate it since his role at the network is changing.

“He’s got
NBC by the balls — because there is no plan B for them. This is Lester’s chance
to get paid.”