NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw will give his final broadcast tonight before retiring from the anchor's chair after 22 years of service. Brokaw's style seemed to fit middle America and people relied on him to show what mattered to his audience on a daily basis. He will be replaced by Brian Williams starting tomorrow.

Brokaw admits that the network news landscape has changed dramatically in the past 22 years with the explosion of 24 hour cable news services and the internet.

'It's a much different playing field,' Brokaw acknowledged. 'Everything has changed. Obviously, the spectrum is now much wider. Chet, David and Walter Cronkite were demigods - not demagogues, demigods - in American life. . . . That was a true American phenomenon. Then it evolved.'

There were many highlights to Brokaw's career. He was the only network news anchor who reported live from the scene as the Berlin Wall fell and he gave excellent reports on issues such as affirmative action.

But perhaps Brokaw's greatest legacy will be his decision to recognize and praise the actions of America's World War II veterans just as that generation began to pass from the scene. His book, 'The Greatest Generation' and his reports from Normandy, France for D-Day's 60th anniversary gave the country a chance to thank it's veterans and to recognize the sacrifices made for freedom during World War II.

Brokaw still sees a place for network anchormen to influence the future of news broadcasts even in the changing world of the 21st Century. ''People have choices that they didn't have before,' Brokaw said. 'But I still think individuals can earn their place and kind of rise above the crowd . . . and the place of the anchorman will be part of it.'