SHORT TAKES : NBC’s 3 Anchors: Not a Signal

NEW YORK — An “NBC Nightly News” show using three anchors instead of Tom Brokaw alone was brought on by special circumstances and does not signal a change in the program’s format, the network said.

Brokaw taped the start of the Wednesday night show in Washington, then had to leave to serve as master of ceremonies at the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights awards, said NBC spokeswoman Katherine McQuay.

Mary Alice Williams, in New York, filled in during the rest of the broadcast, with Garrick Utley, in Berlin, anchoring reports about developments in Eastern Europe.

ABC was the first network to use a triple-anchor format on a regular evening newscast. From 1978 to 1983, its newscast was anchored in Washington by Frank Reynolds, in Chicago by Max Robinson and in London by Peter Jennings. Jennings has been sole anchor of “World News Tonight” since ABC’s troika format was dropped six years ago. Reynolds and Robinson have since died.