Brokaw has fronted NBC's Nightly News for 21 years

"We've been through a lot together," Brokaw, 64, told viewers at the end of his final broadcast on Wednesday.

"Whatever the story I had only one objective - to get it right."

Brokaw has presented the station's Nightly News programme for over 20 years and is credited with taking NBC to the top of news ratings.

He will be followed by Dan Rather, who announced last month that he was giving up his role as the face of CBS News early next year.

It leaves Peter Jennings of ABC's World News Tonight as the last of the triumvirate who ruled network news for more than 20 years.

Rival anchor Dan Rather (r) retires from CBS news next March

"The enduring lessons through the decades are these: It's not the questions that get us in trouble, it's the answers," said Brokaw on Wednesday.

"And just as important, knowing no one person has all the answers," he added.

Brokaw began his career as a local reporter in Nebraska and went on to cover stories like the Watergate scandal, winning several Emmys along the way.

However, he remains most proud of his book The Greatest Generation, based on hundreds of letters and interviews with survivors of the D-Day landings in 1944.