Nightly News anchor Brian William is seen by as many as 11 million viewers each night and is no stranger to a TV studio, but the veteran journalist was still in for a surprise when he sat down in Rachael's Green Room. "They feed you here!" he exclaims, while thanking Rachael for the homemade donuts. "Incredible stomach bombs with sugar on the outside! Those bad boys went away so quickly, they had just put them down in front of me, I snapped open a Coke and did them. Fantastic!"

While he's known for his serious reporting, Brian, who turns 50 this spring, has made a habit of showing up on Late Show to razz Conan O'Brien. Still, it took some convincing to get this newsman to host Saturday Night Live. "I obsessed over this one," Brian admits. "I asked everybody, 'Am I going to flush 26 years of experience down the toilet by doing this?'" He ultimately found the best advice from SNL alum Chevy Chase in the hallways of NBC. "He said, 'Well I watched Dan Rather for 25 years and I still don't know who he is. I only see the half hour of Dan Rather. I'd love to know who you are, and the only way I'm going to find out is if you do it.' So I did."

Rachael praises Brian for his late-night comedic stint, and also for his nightly newscasts that feature upbeat stories despite so much grim news across the globe. "Some nights we come on and almost say apologetically, 'We have more bad news,'" says Brian, pointing out that the country is fighting two wars and the financial turmoil continues. Looking for some positive news, his wife suggested he ask his viewers to e-mail stories of survival and random acts of kindness. "In a few hours we had thousands. They're not stopping," he says. "I could send 500 camera crews out a day to get all these stories; we'd never get them all back in. So we're going to do as many as we can ... We can't just be bumming over this, we have to have some rays of hope."

Only Online! Brian is known for his eclectic taste in music, but what's he listening to now? Find out as he shares his iPod playlist in this backstage interview!