Along with his competitors Peter Jennings at ABC News and Dan Rather at CBS News, Brokaw was one of the "Big Three" news anchors in the U.S. during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. The three hosted their networks' flagship nightly news programs for over 20 years, and all three started and retired from the anchor chair (or died, in Jennings' case) with Dan Rather notably being fired from CBS due to false reports broadcast on 60 Minutes II within a year of each other.