Press: David Takes On a Goliath

Brinkley 's new show goes up against Dallas, TV's fastest draw

When David Brinkley, 60, left his co-anchor post at NBC Nightly News last fall for the pastures of commentary, industry observers speculated that perhaps the network was tiring of his detached, low-key delivery. Brinkley was not sorry to leave after 24 years: "I had been doing it longer than anyone dead or alive," he says. "And I didn't feel that I was doing anything that required any great skill. It was too easy."

His new assignment will not be so easy. On Sept. 26, he...