IT’S a big week for Brian Williams.
First, he’ll moderate tonight’s Democratic presidential debate in Philadelphia. Then, on Saturday, he’ll put on a funny hat and tell Lindsay Lohan jokes.
“I don’t think this will be the day we look back and trace the death of journalism,” Williams told The Post yesterday about his “Saturday Night Live” hosting gig this weekend.
The “NBC Nightly News” anchor will become the first network anchor – active or retired – to host “SNL.”
“This was really one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made,” he says. “I think people understand this is my night off. This is not my day job.”
Because of his schedule – anchoring “Nightly News” and preparing for tonight’s debate – Williams says he has yet to see “a word” of his “SNL” script, and won’t know what the writers have in store for him until tomorrow.
“Lorne [Michaels, the show’s producer] knew this week was going to be this way for me . . . and realized I’m not going to be the typical guest host. I don’t know if any former guest host hosted a presidential debate on Tuesday and did the show on Saturday,” he says.
“It’s a very odd confluence of events and they can’t get their hands on me until [tomorrow].” Turns out, Williams turned down the hosting job once before, after last season’s opener, when he appeared on the “Weekend Update” segment, to “try out” for Tina Fey’s job (she was leaving to star in “30 Rock”).
“I guess I didn’t think it was a real invitation,” he says. “People had mentioned [hosting the show] to me before . . . but this year they really made it plain they were serious.
“It then became a formal invitation. Lorne Michaels approached me with the Nov. 3 date months ago.”
Williams says he “quietly” slipped into a read-through for last month’s “SNL” season opener hosted by NBA star LeBron James. “It was a chance to get the culture down,” he says. “It was really intoxicating.
“But I quickly learned I’m not good at ‘quietly slipping in,’ ” he says. “People were saying to me, ‘Are you gonna do ‘SNL?’ I saw you at the read-through.
“This is something I wanted to try,” he says of Saturday’s gig. “My only fear is the good healthy fear of making a total fool out of myself. But I live with that fear every day.”