NBC is bulking up on more news content. The company announced today that “Morning News Now”—a four-hour weekday news show—will launch on their news-only streaming service, NBC News Now, on Oct. 12. The show was originally supposed to launch back in April, however, COVID-19 put a kibosh to that as lockdowns were implemented. The show will air from 7 to 11 am E.T. Monday through Friday.
“Morning News Now” will be anchored by Savannah Sellers co-host of NBC’s “Stay Tuned” series on Snapchat, and NBC News correspondent Joe Fryer. While the show will air within the same time slot as “Today”—which has aired everyday on NBC for decades and has its own streaming channel online—“Morning News Now” is not meant to be a competitor.
“We don’t see it as in competition with ‘Today’ or MSNBC,” stated Janelle Rodriguez, senior VP of editorial for NBC News. “There are millions of viewers who are getting their news exclusively on streaming… We want to be where our audience is.”
“Morning News Now” will not feature celebrity guests or other segments as “Today” does. Instead, it will maintain a focus on “‘hard news’ with the aim of covering serious topics in a way that viewers ‘walk away feeling informed… but not wanting to curl up on the couch all day and eat chocolate ice cream,’” Rodriguez told Variety.
The announcement comes days after Peacock also announced they will be adding two news shows to their roster. “The Mehdi Hasan Show” and “Zerlina” will debut on the streamer’s news commentary channel, The Choice, on Oct. 5. The two shows join the likes of “The Majority Report” and “The Amber Ruffin Show,” which are also available on the platform.
“The Mehdi Hasan Show” offers insightful reporting and probing interviews that examine the day’s events and provide a deeper level of context for the politics of our interconnected society, while “Zerlina” will offer incisive and timely coverage of politics and current events through in-depth conversations that unpack the latest developments and will draw back the curtain on their real-world consequences.