George Lewis retiring from NBC after 42 years *

George Lewis, the venerable NBC News correspondent in Los Angeles, is hanging up his microphone on January 31. What's he doing today, on his last day in the field? Covering the Oscar nominations for the NBC Nightly News. Lewis has been with the network for 42 years. The network calls Lewis "one of NBC News' most-honored correspondents — the winner of three Emmys, the George Foster Peabody and Edward R. Murrow awards." He began with NBC as a war correspondent in Vietnam in 1970. When he passed 40 years, anchor Brian Williams gave Lewis a nice shout-out on the broadcast.

Reaction on Twitter from NBC correspondent Josh Mankiewicz: "There is no one better at what we do."

Photo: Mitchell Haaseth/NBC