Brian Williams returning to air on Sept. 22

NEW YORK (AP) -- Former NBC News anchor Brian Williams will return to the air on Sept. 22 as part of MSNBC's coverage of Pope Francis' visit to the United States.

The network pinpointed the date on Thursday. It had been looking toward coverage of the pope's visit as the place to start him in his new job of covering breaking news stories during MSNBC's daylight hours.

Williams lost his job as anchor of NBC's "Nightly News" and was suspended for six months after a pattern emerged that he had lied about his role covering certain news stories. Lester Holt has taken over at "Nightly News" and maintained NBC's lead in the evening news ratings competition.

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