NBC Nightly News: Difference between revisions
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NBC Nightly News began broadcasting in HD on [[March 26]], [[2007]], making it the first and only national evening news cast to do so. It has been reported that the in-studio broadcasts will air in HD, while field cameras will still broadcast in standard definition, until they become converted to HD in 2008. ''Dateline'' and [[MSNBC]] will follow, sometime in 2008. |
NBC Nightly News began broadcasting in HD on [[March 26]], [[2007]], making it the first and only national evening news cast to do so. It has been reported that the in-studio broadcasts will air in HD, while field cameras will still broadcast in standard definition, until they become converted to HD in 2008. ''Dateline'' and [[MSNBC]] will follow, sometime in 2008. |
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The show recognizes its past in its opening seconds, with small photos of past anchors and sets and the voices of [[John Cameron Swayze]], Huntley, Brinkley, Chancellor, and Brokaw, as well as an orchestral version of the "G-E-C" [[NBC Chimes]], before going into the opening headlines read by Williams. The voices of McGee and Mudd are not included. |
The show recognizes its past in its opening seconds, with small photos of past anchors and sets and the voices of [[John Cameron Swayze]], Huntley, Brinkley, Chancellor, and Brokaw, as well as an orchestral version of the "G-E-C" [[NBC chimes|NBC Chimes]], before going into the opening headlines read by Williams. The voices of McGee and Mudd are not included. |
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==Weekend Editions== |
==Weekend Editions== |
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Revision as of 02:06, 17 April 2007
| NBC Nightly News | |
|---|---|
| File:NBCNNHDTitle.PNG | |
| Created by | Reuven Frank |
| Starring | Brian Williams (2004–present) Tom Brokaw (1982–2004) Roger Mudd (1982–1983) John Chancellor (1970–1982) David Brinkley (1970, 1976–1979) |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | N/A (airs daily) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | NBC |
| Release | 1970 – present |
NBC Nightly News is the flagship evening news program for NBC News and broadcasts from Studio 3C at the GE Building, Rockefeller Center in New York City. It has been known by this name since August 1970. Currently, weekday broadcasts are anchored by Brian Williams, and weekend editions of the show are anchored by a rotation of NBC News Correspondents.
John Chancellor/David Brinkley era
The program succeeded the Huntley-Brinkley Report upon the retirement of Chet Huntley in 1970. At first, a triumvirate of anchors, John Chancellor, Frank McGee, and David Brinkley presented the news on a rotating basis.
McGee left several months after Nightly News began in order to anchor the morning news program NBC Today Show, replacing Hugh Downs. Chancellor then became the sole anchor, with Brinkley providing three-minute commentaries from Washington several times a week under the title David Brinkley's Journal. In June 1976, though, NBC tried rotating once again, with Chancellor reporting from New York City and Brinkley from Washington. This continued until October 1979, when pressure from the NBC sales department, which thought the rotation deprived the network of a single authoritative news voice, ended it.
Unfortunately, by that time, Chancellor was unable to attract the viewers Walter Cronkite was attracting on the CBS Evening News. During his tenure as NBC Nightly News anchor, he never was able to break the grip Cronkite had on the American news viewer, despite NBC's various changes to the show. Chancellor did, however, remain as an editorial commentator on the news for some years after stepping down from the anchor desk in 1982, until his retirement in the early 1990s.
Tom Brokaw era
Tom Brokaw became solo anchor of NBC Nightly News on September 5, 1983, after NBC once again experimented with a dual-anchor format, with Brokaw and Roger Mudd alternating. Brokaw's presence attracted viewers, and during the 1990s, NBC Nightly News battled for the viewership lead with ABC World News Tonight, anchored by the urbane Canadian Peter Jennings. The once-dominant CBS Evening News, anchored by Dan Rather, lost a substantial portion of the audience it held during the Cronkite era and slid to third place in the viewership wars.
In May 2002, Brokaw announced his retirement as anchor of NBC Nightly News, to take effect shortly after the Presidential election of 2004. During this last presidential election coverage, NBC graphic designers created images of a giant electoral map on the Rockefeller Plaza ice-skating rink, and cherry-pickers tallied the electoral vote count on the GE Building. Brokaw's final broadcast took place on December 1, 2004, ending a 21-year run as the network's chief newsman, a record tenure in NBC's history.
Brian Williams era
Brian Williams, a frequent substitute anchor for Brokaw, became the newscast's permanent anchor on December 2, 2004. The program has continued to hold onto its number one spot in the ratings, averaging 10 million viewers weekly, according to Nielsen Media research documented in USA Today's website. A blog, The Daily Nightly, has been started to add insight into how the broadcast is put together. In addition, each full weekday broadcast is available for viewing that same night after 10 p.m. Eastern time.
Because Brian Williams introduced to the audience the daily blog "The Daily Nightly", he also announced the arrival of a vodcast of the Nightly News.
Williams rose to new levels of popularity for his live spot reporting during and after the 2005 Hurricane season. Campbell Brown, Ann Curry, or Lester Holt substitute for Williams when he is on vacation or on assignment.
On December 4, 2006, NBC Nightly News was presented with limited commercial interruptions by Philips. This marked the first time in its 36-year history in which the newscast has used that experiment.
During the week of February 5-9, 2007, Nightly News lost a net total of 400,000 viewers. Some observers point to the William Arkin controversy as the main reason for the ratings slide.
NBC Nightly News began broadcasting in HD on March 26, 2007, making it the first and only national evening news cast to do so. It has been reported that the in-studio broadcasts will air in HD, while field cameras will still broadcast in standard definition, until they become converted to HD in 2008. Dateline and MSNBC will follow, sometime in 2008.
The show recognizes its past in its opening seconds, with small photos of past anchors and sets and the voices of John Cameron Swayze, Huntley, Brinkley, Chancellor, and Brokaw, as well as an orchestral version of the "G-E-C" NBC Chimes, before going into the opening headlines read by Williams. The voices of McGee and Mudd are not included.
Weekend Editions
The weekend editions of Nightly News are anchored by a rotation of NBC News Correspondents. John Seigenthaler, previously served as anchor of the Saturday and Sunday editions of the NBC Nightly News from July, 1999 through the April 1, 2007 broadcast.[1]
The weekend editions of NBC Nightly News began January 4, 1969, when "Huntley-Brinkley Report" was expanded to six nights a week (Monday–Saturday). When lower-than-expected ratings occurred, the network pulled the pair off Saturdays (where they had been alternating weeks reading the newscast alone) and assigned others such as Frank Blair, Frank McGee, and Sander Vanocur to that evening, renaming it NBC Saturday News. On August 2, 1970, two days after Huntley-Brinkley ended, the network finally introduced Sunday evening newscasts, with all the 30-minute broadcasts now known as Nightly News. Former anchors of the weekend Nightly News include Garrick Utley, Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw, John Hart, John Palmer, Connie Chung, Maria Shriver, Jane Pauley, Jessica Savitch and Stephen Frazier.
Theme music
- "Huntley-Brinkley Report/NBC Nightly News Ticker" (1970–1973); the theme was used since 1962 when the program was still called "The Huntley-Brinkley Report")
- "NBC News Ticker" (1973–1976)
- Untitled theme (1976–1977)
- "NBC Nightly News", by Henry Mancini (1977–1982)
- "NBC News", by Joseph Paul Sicurella, Tony Smythe, and Bob Christianson (1979–1982 as a bumper; 1982–1985 as the main theme)
- "The Mission", by John Williams (1985— )
Nightly in HD
NBC Nightly News began broadcasting in 1080i high definition on March 26, 2007. ABC and CBS have announced no plans to broadcast their evening newscasts in high definition.
Trivia
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. |
- Australia's Seven Network has been using variations of "The Mission" news theme on its bulletins since the late 1980s, including a club mix version of the theme used from 1999 to 2004. The Seven Network also called their flagship bulletin Seven Nightly News for several years.
- From 1983 to 1984, the intro featured an animated globe which spun west-to-east instead of east-to-west. It was an attempt to represent the Earth as it is seen by space shuttle astronauts in orbit, but many viewers assumed it was a mistake and wrote in. Tom Brokaw noted the concern on the air, and the spin was reversed in 1984.
- The background shown behind Brian Williams is not the real newsroom or control room. Instead, it is a sixty-second loop of footage shot at around 1AM in 1997 from MSNBC's feed room. This was done because a real live shot would be much too busy and distract the viewer. This bit of trickery also makes the set appear much larger on TV than it actually is.
- The announcer for the program is long-time NBC staff announcer Howard Reig. He retired to Florida in 2005 but a recording he made before his retirement continues to be used. When the show is on the road or a new substitute anchor is employed, Reig records a new introduction in a Miami studio.
- In an occurrence of what many media critics declare a vast decline in quality of the major broadcast networks' news divisions, Nightly News devoted a mere 14 seconds to the Iraqi War, compared with 3 minutes and 13 seconds to the death of Anna Nicole Smith on the February 8, 2007 broadcast [1].
Broadcasts outside US
In Europe, NBC Nightly News is shown live on CNBC Europe. NBC News programming is also shown for several hours a day on the 24 hour news network Orbit News in Europe and the Middle East. In the Philippines, NBC Nightly News is shown on ETC 2nd Avenue. In Japan, NBC Nightly News is shown on NTV NEWS 24. It is televised at 7:30 pm Atlantic time on VSB-TV in Bermuda.
Credits
- Weekdays
- Anchor & Managing Editor: Brian Williams
- Executive Producer: Alexandra Wallace
- Senior Broadcast Producer: Bob Epstein
- Director: Brett Holey
- Senior Producers: Gena Fitzgerald, M.L. Flynn, Tracey Lyons, Albert Oetgen, Richard Latour
- Broadcast Producer: Ed Deitch
- Anchor Producer: Subrata De
- Tape Producers: Anne Binford Allen and Robin Skolnick
- New York Producers: Donna Bass, Marisa Buchanan, Clare Duffy, Mario Garcia, Julie Holstein; Joo Lee, Bita Nikravesh, Felicia Patinkin, Charles Schaeffer, Sam Singal, Kelly Venardos, and Robert Windrem
- News Writers: Christine Colvin and Barbara Raab
- Editors: Robert Kaplan, Bob Croce, Jody Henenfeld, Beverly Chase, Maggie Kassner
- Website Producers: Rob Merrill and Constance Parten
- Music by: John Williams
- Graphic Designers: Joe Incorvaia, Art Director; Collin Pisarra, Designer
- Interns: Amy Allen, Ali Weinberg
- Weekend
- Anchor: NBC News Correspondents rotate
- Executive Producer: Pat Burkey
- Senior Broadcast Producer: Matt Saal
- Director: Patricia Lang
- Producers: Buba Adschiew, Carol Eggers, Tom Dawson, Lydia Lively (Washington), and Maria Alcon
- Graphic Designers: William Donovan, Art Director
- Tape Producer: Lauren Fairbanks
- News Writers: Barbara Bernhard
- Music by: John Williams
See also
External links
- NBC Nightly News
- The Daily Nightly: Official Blog of NBC Nightly News
- NBC Nightly News at IMDb
- Links for John Williams' Theme
