News

LOS ANGELES — Former 1970s teen idol Leif Garrett has been charged with felony possession of heroin after his arrest in a Los Angeles subway station.

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Garrett

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The 48-year-old singer and actor was charged Friday and is free on bond. He is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 24.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore says deputies confronted Garrett at the downtown Metro Red Line station Monday. They say he admitted having black tar heroin in his shoe.

Garrett was also arrested for heroin possession at an LA subway station in 2006.

A phone message left for publicist Barbara Papageorge was not returned.

Garrett had a handful of hit songs and was a constant cover boy on teen magazines in the 1970s.

Brian Williams attracts viewers for NBC news

NEW YORK — Forget Jay Leno. Maybe NBC should have considered Brian Williams for a prime-time job.

The week before last, Williams’ “Nightly News” was seen by an average of 10.1 million viewers each evening. Not only was that more than Leno, it beat every other program NBC showed in prime time all week, with “The Biggest Loser” closest at 9.7 million, the Nielsen Co. said.

That’s not bad for a format — the network evening newscast — considered on its deathbed longer than most college students have been alive. It’s equally impressive for NBC News, which has thrived even though everything else at the network is falling apart.

Both the “Today” show and Williams’ flag-shift newscast have increased already substantial leads in the ratings over second-place broadcasts on ABC News since each of those competitors switched anchors in December.

Five years into his job, competing with ABC’s Diane Sawyer and CBS’ Katie Couric, Williams is now the dean of evening news anchors.

“Having turned 50 this year, I suddenly woke up and I’m in the demographic that my parents were in when they were in the prime of watching an evening newscast,” Williams said.

The stiff air of formality that characterized his early days replacing Tom Brokaw is gone now, and viewers are responding.

The weeks that he slipped behind ABC’s Charles Gibson in the ratings seem a distant memory, too. “Nightly News” averaged more than 10 million viewers each week in January, and the show’s 11 percent margin over ABC before Sawyer took over swelled to 16 percent once she became anchor.