With Russert at its helm, the show had retained a healthy ratings margin over competitors. In the 2007-08 season, it averaged 3.9 million viewers, compared with 2.8 million for ABC's "This Week."
NBC Universal chief Jeff Zucker seemed to recognize this by noting in a statement Friday: "The enormity of this loss cannot be overstated."
More important, Russert was a dean of the Washington political establishment. His death unleashed a flood of elegies from President Bush, Sen. John McCain and others.
Politicians haven't always appreciated Russert's attention, though. With his bulky physique and booming baritone, he made a formidable interrogator on "Meet the Press." Russert developed a signature interviewing style: typically reading excerpts from news stories aloud or playing old video clips, and then asking his sometimes-uncomfortable subjects why the cited material seemed inconsistent with views or positions they had taken elsewhere.
Just last month, after Sen. Barack Obama won the North Carolina primary and Sen. Hillary Clinton barely eked out a win in Indiana, Russert jolted party leaders by declaring on MSNBC: "We now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be, and no one's going to dispute it."
The Clinton campaign was so stung by the appraisal that it responded with an ad for Oregon voters openly disparaging Russert and others for talking about "who's up and who's down."
In November, Clinton supporters complained bitterly that Russert had unfairly singled out the candidate during a Democratic debate.
On "Meet the Press" in December, Russert may have hastened the demise of Rudolph Giuliani's presidential bid with a systematic inquiry into the Republican hopeful's personal and political foibles.
Yet Russert also drew criticism for becoming too close with the Beltway elite.
Early last year, during the perjury trial of Bush administration aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former press aide to Vice President Dick Cheney testified that she often tried to get officials on Russert's show.
"Meet the Press" was "our best format," she said, where the administration could reliably "control the message."
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Times staff writers Matea Gold and Mark Barabak contributed to this story.
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Scott Collins writes the Channel Island column that runs Mondays in Calendar.
