''Face the Nation'' is a weekly news and morning public affairs program airing Sundays on the CBS radio and

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid ...

. Created by Frank Stanton in 1954, ''Face the Nation'' is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

. Typically, the program features interviews with prominent American officials, politicians, and authors.

Margaret Brennan Margaret Brennan (born March 26, 1980) is an American journalist based in Washington, D.C. The current moderator of '' Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan'' on CBS News, she is also a fill-in and substitute anchor for ''CBS Evening News'', and t ...

has been the moderator of ''Face the Nation'' since 2018, though former host John Dickerson substituted during Brennan's maternity leave in spring and summer 2021. Upon Brennan's return to the program in September 2021, its title was changed to ''Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.'' The show's full hour is broadcast live from the CBS News Washington, D.C., bureau at 10:30 a.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small ...

, though some stations delay or abbreviate episodes to accommodate local and sports programming. In 2017, ''Face the Nation''s audience was the largest of all Sunday public affairs programs, with an average of 3.538 million viewers.

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

competitor ''

Meet the Press ''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television Sunday morning talk shows, news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the List of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running program on American television, though the curr ...

'' has closely competed for the title in 2018, besting ''Face the Nation''s audience for several months.

Format

Similar to its Sunday morning competitors, ''Face the Nation'' begins each episode with a short "tease" segment recapping the week's events and teasing the day's guests, set to the show's theme music. The remainder of the program's first half-hour typically features interviews of prominent politicians, often lawmakers and

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

officials, responding to issues from the week's news. The program's second-half hour transitions to more discussion-oriented segments, including interviews of notable authors with forthcoming books and a weekly roundtable discussion, with a rotating cast of panelists. The program's inclusion of a roundtable discussion has been indefinitely suspended since circa May 2020, the producers citing their desire to devote more time to interviews (and remained suspended in fall 2022). Unlike some of its competitors, ''Face the Nation'' generally books only journalists and columnists for its panel discussions, omitting current and former politicians from providing

pundit A pundit is a person who offers mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport). Origins The term originates from the Sanskrit term ('' '' ), meaning "knowledg ...

ry. During major news events or breaking news, the program will often feature reports from various CBS News correspondents before the day's interviews, to allow guests the opportunity to respond to the latest news.

Distribution

''Face the Nation'' first half-hour airs on CBS television stations throughout the United States, typically in the morning. In 2018, the

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...

digital streaming network began re-airing the program's full hour at 11:00 a.m., 3 p.m., and 6 p.m.

. Many of the network's affiliates in the

Pacific Time Zone The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00 ...

air ''Face the Nation'' at 8:30 a.m. local time, serving as a lead-in to the

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W ...

program ''

The NFL Today ''The NFL Today'' is an American football television program on CBS that serves as the pre-game show for the network's National Football League (NFL) game telecasts under the ''NFL on CBS'' brand. The program features commentary on the latest ne ...

'' during the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

season. A delayed audio broadcast of the program is also carried on a handful of radio affiliates through the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...

, and in the late afternoon on

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

's Washington area radio station

WCSP-FM WCSP-FM, also known as C-SPAN Radio, is a radio station owned by the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) in Washington, D.C. The station is licensed to C-SPAN's corporate owner, the National Cable Satellite Corporation, and broadc ...

. CBS Radio also edits and distributes a slightly abbreviated version of the program as a weekly podcast.

''Face the State''

As a complement to the national program, several CBS affiliates, mainly based in state capital cities, carry their own programs leading into and out of ''Face the Nation'' titled ''Face the State'' dealing with state and local politics with the same format as ''Face the Nation'', including

KTVN KTVN (channel 2) is a television station in Reno, Nevada, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by Sarkes Tarzian, Inc., the station has studios on Energy Way in Reno, and its transmitter is located on Slide Mountain in unincorporated W ...

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is th ...

(in the same metropolitan area as

Carson City Carson City is an independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the sixth largest city in Nevada. The majority of the city's population lives in Eagle Valley, on th ...

), the stations of the

Montana Television Network The Montana Television Network (MTN) is a statewide network of CBS affiliates in the U.S. state of Montana. It also includes one NBC station. All but one of these stations are owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. Five of the full-powered MTN stat ...

, WBNS-TV in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...

, WFSB in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

, and

WHP-TV WHP-TV (channel 21) is a television station licensed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States, serving the Susquehanna Valley region as an affiliate of CBS, MyNetworkTV, and The CW. Owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station has st ...

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the 9th largest city and 15th largest municipality in ...

, while

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

's CBS-owned station WFOR-TV has a complementary program titled ''Facing South Florida''. Other stations carry the same format under other titles, such as ''For the Record'' on

WISC-TV WISC-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is the flagship television property of locally based Morgan Murphy Media, which has owned the station since its inception ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th ...

History

''Face the Nation'' premiered on November 7, 1954, and was originally broadcast on Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m.

. Bill Shadel was then the Washington, D.C. bureau chief for

. On that first program, his guest was

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

senator

Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarth ...

. Guests were rarely scheduled far in advance, in order to keep on top of current news stories.

Lesley Stahl

As the first female host of ''Face the Nation'', Stahl became one of the most recognizable female faces on television. She held the position for eight years before stepping down to focus on ''60 Minutes.''

Under Schieffer

In 1991, Bob Schieffer took over as moderator for

Lesley Stahl Lesley Rene Stahl (born December 16, 1941) is an American television journalist. She has spent most of her career with CBS News, where she began as a producer in 1971. Since 1991, she has reported for CBS's ''60 Minutes''. She is known for her ne ...

, who as previously mentioned, held the position for eight years. Under Schieffer, ratings boomed and the program extended its half-hour time frame to a full one hour. Ratings soared to over 3 million viewers every Sunday, as ''Face the Nation'' surpassed all competitors in the ratings. Schieffer won numerous awards with the program, including two Emmy's for Outstanding News Discussion & Analysis, an Edward R. Murrow Award, and the Overseas Press Club Award. In July 2011, ''Face the Nation'' became the last Sunday morning talk program to begin broadcasting in high definition (leaving only CBS' overnight news program '' Up to the Minute'' as the only American news program on the major broadcast networks and cable news channels that continued to broadcast in

standard definition Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...

, until it converted to HD in late November 2012). Another big change came for the program in December 2011, when they permanently extended the half-hour broadcast to a full hour. The move came after ''Face the Nation'' competitors,

's ''

'', ABC's '' This Week'', and ''

Fox News Sunday ''Fox News Sunday'' is a Sunday morning talk show that has aired on the broadcast Fox network since 1996, as a presentation of Fox News Channel. It is the only regularly scheduled Fox News program carried on the main Fox broadcast network. Ho ...

'', all extended their programs to one-hour. The delay came from dispute among the network's affiliate stations.

After Schieffer

In 2015,

Bob Schieffer Bob Lloyd Schieffer (born February 25, 1937) is an American television journalist. He is known for his moderation of presidential debates, where he has been praised for his capability. Schieffer is one of the few journalists to have covered all f ...

, the longest-serving moderator in the program's history, retired after 24 years. He was replaced by John Dickerson on June 7, 2015. On February 22, 2018, CBS announced Margaret Brennan as the new host, replacing John Dickerson, who served as moderator for less than three years to let him focus on his anchor duties on ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...

''. Brennan is the second female host in the program's history, after Lesley Stahl. Brennan conducted numerous interviews with members of the Trump administration, including former Secretary of State

Rex Tillerson Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) is an American engineer and energy executive who served as the 69th U.S. secretary of state from February 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, under President Donald Trump. Prior to joining the Trump administ ...

and House Oversight Committee Chairman

Trey Gowdy Harold Watson "Trey" Gowdy III (born August 22, 1964) is an American television news personality, former politician, and former federal prosecutor who served as the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2019. His district included much of the Ups ...

. Margaret Brennan also serves as the network's senior foreign affairs correspondent. Brennan interviewed Vice President

Mike Pence Michael Richard Pence (born June 7, 1959) is an American politician who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 50th ...

in her last episode before maternity leave.

Moderators

The program has been hosted by ten moderators to date, beginning with Bill Shadel. The current moderator, Margaret Brennan, has hosted since February 2018. The following is the list of moderators for ''Face the Nation'':

Program length

The program ran 30 minutes for much of its history. It expanded to 60 minutes for a preliminary 20-week period in April 2012, and was extended to that time length permanently on July 29, 2012. There is a deliberate break between the first and second half of the program, to allow local affiliates to begin airing another program if they wish to do so. Approximately 81% of the stations affiliated with CBS air the second half-hour contiguously with the first; the remainder either do not air the second half-hour at all or air that portion of the program on a tape delayed basis, because of station commitments to other programming (mainly station-produced NFL

pre-game show A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger f ...

s leading into ''

'', along with E/I commitments and

advertorial An advertorial is an advertisement in the form of editorial content. The term "advertorial" is a blend (see portmanteau) of the words "advertisement" and "editorial." Merriam-Webster dates the origin of the word to 1946. In printed publications, t ...

or outdoors programming). Other stations choose to air the second half-hour after primetime following their late local newscasts or in a later time slot as part of their late night schedule, though the number of stations carrying the full hour in pattern has increased over time with the end of former commitments as of 2017, from 64% in 2012. ''Face the Nation'' was the last Sunday public affairs program to extend its length to a full hour. The move came as a way to draw viewers away from competitors.

In popular media

''Face the Nation'' has been mentioned by

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program '' The Colbert Report'' from 2005 ...

using the nickname "The Nation Face" on several occasions. The comic strip '' Grin and Bear It'' satirized the show as "Faze The Nation".

References

External links