Tom Brokaw's cellphone becomes election-night star

Patrick Kevin Day

Tom Brokaw, the longtime former anchor of "NBC Nightly News" will always be TV journalism royalty, but Tuesday night, Brokaw introduced America to a new star in the Brokaw house: his cellphone.

Tom Brokaw "answers" his cellphone live on the air on election night

Brokaw was live on MSNBC on Tuesday discussing midterm election results with Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews when they were interrupted by a loud, disruptive alert sound. Maddow tried to dismiss it as ambient noise, but Brokaw quickly fessed up: It was the alarm on his cellphone that had begun going off.

"I thought you were on fire," Maddow joked.

Many anchors would have quickly turned off the alarm and continued about their business, but Brokaw has obviously been taking some improv classes these days, because he chose to turn the cellphone mishap into a "bit."

Pressing the phone to his ear, Brokaw engaged in a one-sided conversation.

"Yes, I will remember to bring home the milk. ... Don't worry about it," Brokaw said. "I'll feed the dog in the morning. Just sleep in, it's going to be OK."

Many viewers took to Twitter to say that Brokaw's cellphone shtick was the highlight of the evening.

MSNBC commentator Keith Boykin tweeted, "Guess they didn't have that problem when he was an anchor in the 90s."

Perhaps anchors on CNN should consider some amusing watermelon smashing in 2016. 

Patrick Kevin Day, Los Angeles Times, November 5, 2014