Former NBC Anchor Brian Williams made his return to the lesser MSNBC and if you believe the media critics it was a big success.

".....ratings from 3-5 p.m. ET were up +76 percent compared to the Sept. 2014 average." according to TVNewser.

"Williams anchored 3-5:50 PM and clocked nearly 600K viewers; 93K in the news demo." reported Deadline Hollywood. 

While many want to claim that Williams return is a ratings success, they should remember, Pope Francis might have had a little something to do with the ratings increase. 

We would bet the house that even if Al Sharpton was anchoring the Pope coverage, the ratings would have been dramatically higher. 

A majority of viewers are tuning in to see the Pope, not Brian Williams.

While you can not call Williams return a failure, giving him credit for Pope Francis' numbers is a big stretch.

Let's see when Brian Williams anchors breaking coverage of another GOP candidate dropping out of the race and see what his ratings are like?

The ratings for the Pope coverage is great spin, but it is nothing close to the truth.

Just saying....