''NewsNation Prime'' is an American

television news News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or televis ...

program on

NewsNation NewsNation is an American subscription television network owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and is the company's only wholly-owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel runs a mixture of entertainment programming (consistin ...

, which premiered nationally on September 1, 2020. Broadcast live from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, the program utilizes the journalistic resources of the 110 television news operations throughout the United States that are operated under the network's corporate parent

Nexstar Media Group Nexstar Media Group, Inc. is an American publicly traded media company with headquarter offices in Irving, Texas; Midtown Manhattan; and Chicago, Illinois. The company is the largest television station owner in the United States, owning 197 te ...

. The program is designed as an alternative to the opinion-based programs on

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

and

Fox News Channel The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

, the top-rated cable news networks in the country in the early 2020s. ''NewsNation Prime'' airs Saturdays and Sundays from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET. (The program offers a same-night rebroadcast from 10:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. ET in order to align the program with the prime time period 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) ...

.) The program combines reporting from its national correspondents and repackaged content from local Nexstar stations. The program had an hour-long late-evening edition entitled ''NewsNation Tonight'', which aired every weeknight from 11:00 p.m. to midnight ET.

History

The genesis of the project was in October 2019, when Nexstar management commissioned viewer research that showed that people were dissatisfied with opinion-based programming on the cable news channels. CNN, which had previously shown straight news programming during the evening, moved into liberal-leaning personality-based programming under the leadership of

Jeff Zucker Jeffrey Adam Zucker (born April 9, 1965) is an American former media executive. Between January 2013 and February 2022, Zucker was the president of CNN Worldwide. Zucker oversaw CNN, CNN International, HLN, and CNN Digital. He was previously C ...

, while MSNBC (which gravitated toward

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

opinion/talk programs beginning in 2008), conservative-leaning Fox News and

One America News Network One America News Network (OANN), also known as One America News (OAN), is a far-right, pro-Trump cable news channel founded by Robert Herring Sr. and owned by Herring Networks, Inc., that launched on July 4, 2013. The network is headquartere ...

(the latter two networks have both used

conservative talk Conservative talk radio is a talk radio format in the United States and other countries devoted to expressing conservative viewpoints of issues, as opposed to progressive talk radio. The definition of conservative talk is generally broad enough ...

shows) to anchor their prime time shows since the May 2004 cancellation of ''

The News with Brian Williams ''The News with Brian Williams'' (later known as ''The News on CNBC'') was an American news program that premiered on July 15, 1996, MSNBC's first day on the air. It was the first flagship signature news broadcast on both MSNBC and CNBC. The show ...

'' and the ''

Fox Report The ''Fox Report'' is an American evening news broadcasting, television news program on Fox News, which debuted on September 13, 1999 as a seven-night-a-week broadcast with Shepard Smith as main anchor of the program until it was relegated to week ...

'' relegation to a weekend-only telecast in October 2013. Originally codenamed ''Project Neutral,'' on January 15, 2020, Nexstar announced the program, four months after the company closed on an acquisition of

Tribune Media Tribune Media Company, also known as Tribune Company, was an American multimedia conglomerate headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through Tribune Broadcasting, Tribune Media was one of the largest television broadcasting companies, owning 39 ...

that encompassed much of the latter's broadcast and digital assets (including WGN America, which was the lone wholly owned property among Tribune's

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

assets and remains so as a Nexstar property), and greatly expanded Nexstar's broadcasting portfolio in the 50 largest U.S. television markets (adding stations in such major cities as

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

). The program was developed by Perry Sook and Sean Compton and under management of Jennifer Lyons, who was reassigned by Nexstar from her role as

news director A news director is an individual at a broadcast station or network or a newspaper who is in charge of the news department. In local news, the news director is typically in charge of the entire news staff, including journalists, news presenters, ph ...

at its Chicago station

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...

to serve as WGN America's vice president of news, with the assistance of WGN America Executive Vice President

Sean Compton Sean Compton is a Chicago-based radio and television executive. Compton began his career in radio in 1990. In 1993 he became Program Director of Cincinnati radio station WSAI eventually rising to VP of programming in 1999 for Clear Channel Radio a ...

. Former Fox News Channel chief and

White House Deputy Chief of Staff The White House deputy chief of staff is officially the top aide to the White House chief of staff, who is the senior aide to the president of the United States. The deputy chief of staff usually has an office in the West Wing and is responsible ...

Bill Shine William Shine (born July 4, 1963) is a former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. He spent most of his career as a producer and executive at Fox News. Most recently, he was c ...

was brought on as a consultant. ''NewsNation'' is the first national news effort to use WGN America as a platform since the channel—then operating as WGN-TV's

superstation ''Superstation'' (alternatively rendered as "super station" or informally as "SuperStation") is a term in North American broadcasting that has several meanings. Commonly, a "superstation" is a form of distant signal, a terrestrial television, br ...

feed under the ownership of former parent Tribune—carried the similarly formatted '' Independent Network News'' from its premiere in June 1980 until the Tribune-distributed syndicated newscast ended in June 1990. Upon its September 2020 premiere, ''NewsNation'' replaced acquired entertainment programming and movies that WGN America used to occupy prime time and early late-night timeslots. Because the program replaced syndicated programming that was scheduled to have their contracts expire or have their allotted timeslots reduced within the WGN America schedule, the cost of developing ''NewsNation'' and hiring personnel for the program is neutral to Nexstar. The program was developed amid the

COVID-19 pandemic in the United States The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States is a part of the COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In the Uni ...

and launched just before the

2020 United States presidential election The 2020 United States presidential election was the 59th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 2020. The Democratic ticket of former vice president Joe Biden and the junior U.S. senator from California Kamala Ha ...

. Nexstar hired "

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

ians" to monitor the language used to describe events for neutrality, and is also providing significant weather coverage, which is, for the most part, not currently readily available on cable television (except for hurricanes and other major

severe weather Severe weather is any dangerous meteorological phenomenon with the potential to cause damage, serious social disruption, or loss of human life. Types of severe weather phenomena vary, depending on the latitude, altitude, topography, and atm ...

events, particularly as

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecas ...

currently shows weather-related entertainment and documentary programs in prime time, and all-weather-focused

WeatherNation TV WeatherNation TV (branded on-air as simply WeatherNation) is an American broadcast, digital streaming, cable, and satellite television network owned by WeatherNation, Inc, a subsidiary of Performance One Media and ultimately owned by Robert J. ...

and

AccuWeather Network The AccuWeather Network is an American cable television, cable and satellite television, satellite television network launched, operated and owned by AccuWeather. The network broadcasts live and pre-recorded national and regional weather forecast ...

have relatively limited pay television distribution). Nexstar spent $20 million to build the operation, including a complete renovation of the WGN-TV studio facility in Chicago's North Center neighborhood. ''NewsNation'' studio was built inside Studio 3, which was previously occupied by defunct regional cable news channel

Chicagoland Television Chicagoland Television (branded on-air as CLTV) was an American regional cable news television channel located in Chicago, Illinois. The channel served the Chicago metropolitan area. The channel was formerly owned by Tribune Media (through its T ...

; the program's newsroom was built above WGN-TV's local newsroom, in space formerly occupied by sister AM radio station WGN. The company also spent $100 million in advertising for the September 2020 launch, including a 28-minute behind-the-scenes program which was uploaded on WGN America's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

platforms on August 17, 2020, and aired commercial-free on WGN America and on Nexstar stations during the weekend of August 29. To prevent preconceived viewer impressions based on their past work, Compton and Lyons hired journalists with experience rooted mainly in local television news to be part of the program's in-house staff of anchors, correspondents and meteorologists. Compton told the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' in June 2020, “We just hired local journalists who have not been at opinionated networks because let's face it, the big three news channels are all opinionated — two on the left, one on the right. We want them to come from local stations which tend to report facts and let you come to your own opinion.” By its launch, NewsNation hired 150 people in Chicago and bureaus in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

. The program also uses reporting from local Nexstar stations. Nexstar required that its local stations withhold

breaking news Breaking news, interchangeably termed late-breaking news and also known as a special report or special coverage or news flash, is a current issue that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming or current news in orde ...

footage from competing networks in order to give ''NewsNation'' right of first coverage; the move led

to terminate a video sharing agreement that granted Nexstar's 197 stations access to content from its CNN Newsource video wire service. Over the first month, ratings reached approximately 100,000 viewers per night, approximately in line with the viewership of syndicated reruns and first-run programming that had previously occupied the timeslot. However, average ratings—factoring drop-offs from first-week sampling—fell below 100,000 viewers for its second and third hours following its premiere week. The program saw a ratings high for anchor Joe Donlon's September 22, 2020, interview with President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

, which peaked at 218,000 viewers for the 8:00 p.m. ET hour, before falling to 54,000 viewers for that night's third hour. Ratings in the 25-54 demographic prized by advertisers have been especially low, with an average of 15,000 viewers, less than one-sixth of the amount thought to be successful. Since its launch, NewsNation has been criticized for a rightward tilt in its guests and for hiring former Fox News Channel chief and

as a consultant. The news director and managing editor quit following disclosure of Shine's role. Lyons announced her resignation in March amid growing concern that the channel would lean rightward and minuscule ratings for the network. Effective March 1, 2021, the final hour of ''NewsNation'' will be branded '' Banfield'' as veteran journalist

Ashleigh Banfield Ashleigh Dennistoun Banfield (born December 29, 1967) is a Canadian-American journalist and host of ''Banfield'' on the NewsNation network. She is a former host of ''Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield'' and ''Early Start'' on CNN. Education ...

will host an interview program under the ''NewsNation'' banner. The

WGN America WGN America was an American subscription television network that was owned by the Nexstar Media Group, and was the company's only wholly owned, national cable-originated television channel. The channel in its final form under the WGN branding ran ...

network will be re-branded as NewsNation and include new programming: ''NewsNation Early Edition'' which will be hosted by Nichole Berlie at 6 p.m. ET, and '' The Donlon Report'', anchored by Joe Donlon at 7 p.m. ET. The two-hour NewsNation broadcast will be renamed ''NewsNation Prime''. Effective July 19, 2021, the first hour of NewsNation Prime would be branded as ''On Balance with Leland Vittert''. NewsNation Prime has been reduced to one hour. Effective immediately, NewsNation Prime would add a live, hour-long late-evening newscast at 11 p.m. ET (which eventually became ''NewsNation Tonight''), and anchored by Marni Hughes and Leland Vittert. On September 16, 2022, NewsNation Prime anchor Marni Hughes will make her final appearance on the show. She will host ''NewsNation Live'' which will debut on September 19, 2022. On September 19, 2022, Journalist

Elizabeth Vargas Elizabeth Anne Vargas (born September 6, 1962) is an American television journalist who is the lead investigative reporter/documentary anchor for A&E Networks, and the host for Fox's revival of '' America's Most Wanted''. She began her new positi ...

will guest anchor NewsNation Prime until September 23, 2022. On October 3, 2022, NewsNation Prime will be replaced by a new show, ''Cuomo'', hosted by

Chris Cuomo Christopher Cuomo ( ; born August 9, 1970) is a television journalist anchor at NewsNation, based in New York City. He has previously been the ABC News chief law and justice correspondent and the co-anchor for ABC's ''20/20'', news anchor for ...

at 8 p.m. ET. NewsNation Prime will continue to air on Saturdays and Sundays from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET.

Digital content

The digital platform, which provides supplemental content to that which is featured on the television broadcast, is branded as ''NewsNation Now''. The platform's app includes audio updates—consisting of news summaries (similar to the top-of-the-hour national summaries played on affiliates of syndicated radio news providers) and single-story segments—produced by Nexstar-owned news/talk radio station WGN in Chicago, which dropped its decades-long

ABC News Radio ABC News Radio is the news radio service of ABC Audio, a division of ABC News in the United States. Formerly known as ABC Radio News, ABC News Radio feeds, through Skyview Networks, five minute newscasts on the hour and news briefs at half-pas ...

affiliation amid ''NewsNation'' launch. To promote the newscast, WGN America offered viewers unrestricted access to the livestream of the program's live broadcast and rebroadcast in 2020; following the promotional period, the program is only accessible via provider login to subscribers who receive WGN America through cable, satellite and wireline-style

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded media, ...

providers. Already on AT&T TV Now, WGN America was added to most virtual MVPD services in January 2021, including

YouTube TV YouTube TV is an American streaming television service operated by YouTube, a wholly owned subsidiary of Google. Announced on February 28, 2017, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor offers a selection of live linear channel f ...

Sling TV Sling TV is an American streaming television service operated by Sling TV LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dish Network. Unveiled on January 5, 2015, at the Consumer Electronics Show, the virtual multichannel video programming distributor aims ...

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

and

FuboTV FuboTV Inc. (stylized as fuboTV) is an American streaming television service serving customers in the United States, Canada, and Spain that focuses primarily on channels that distribute live sports. Depending on country, channels offered by Fubo ...

. In late September 2020, select Nexstar-run

MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (unofficially abbreviated MyTV, MyNet, MNT or MNTV, and sometimes referred to as My Network) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its ...

and independent stations—such as

WMYT-TV WMYT-TV (channel 55) is a television station licensed to Rock Hill, South Carolina, United States, serving the Charlotte, North Carolina area as an affiliate of MyNetworkTV. It is the only major commercial television station in the Charlotte mar ...

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

and

KAUT-TV KAUT-TV (channel 43) is an independent television station in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside NBC affiliate KFOR-TV (channel 4). Both stations share studios in Oklahoma City's McCourry Heights ...

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

—began offering preview simulcasts of the first hour of ''NewsNation''.

On-air staff

Notable current on-air talent

Dan Abrams Daniel Abrams (born May 20, 1966) is an American media entrepreneur, television host, legal commentator, and author. He is currently the host of the prime-time show ''Dan Abrams Live'' on NewsNation, ''On Patrol: Live'' on Reelz and ''The Dan Ab ...

– weeknight host of Dan Abrams Live (formerly of MSNBC) *

– weeknight host of Banfield (formerly of

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

, HLN,

and

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's var ...

) *Adrienne Bankert – national correspondent/morning anchor of Morning in America (TV program) (formerly of

KCRA-TV KCRA-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Sacramento, California, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside Stockton, California, Stockton-licensed MyNetworkTV affiliate KQCA (channel 58). Both stations ...

KTVT KTVT (channel 11) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting CBS programming to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Independent statio ...

, and ABC News) *Nichole Berlie – weeknight anchor of NewsNation Rush Hour(formerly of

WCVB-TV WCVB-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, affiliated with ABC and owned by Hearst Television. The station's studios are located on TV Place (off Gould Street near the I-95/ MA 128/Highland Avenue int ...

) * Keleigh Beeson – national correspondent (formerly of

KMBC-TV KMBC-TV (channel 9) is a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Hearst Television alongside CW affiliate KCWE (channel 29). Both stations share studios on Winchester Avenue in the List o ...

) *Aleksandra Bush – ''NewsNation Now'' anchor/producer (formerly of WGHP) *Alex Caprariello – West Coast correspondent of Morning in America (formerly of KXAN-TV and KNWA-TV) *Dray Clark – national correspondent (formerly of Black News Channel) *Mitch Carr – morning anchor of Early Morning *Tom Dempsey – Washington D.C. correspondent (formerly of WHSV-TV) *Ileana Diaz – Miami correspondent of Morning in America (formerly of KNBC, WUSA (TV), and KYW-TV) * Brian Entin – senior national correspondent (formerly of WSVN) *Sloane Glass – entertainment correspondent of Morning in America (formerly of WAGA-TV) *Allison Harris – White House correspondent (formerly of KDFW) * Marni Hughes – weekday anchor of NewsNation Live (formerly of KCPQ) * Gerard Jebaily – weekend meteorologist (formerly of KSHB-TV) * Marley Kayden – business correspondent (formerly of WGN-TV, & WMAQ-TV) * Joe Khalil – Capitol Hill reporter (formerly of WLNS-TV) * Kelsey Kernstine – Chicago correspondent (formerly of KWTV-DT) *Evan Lambert – Washington D.C. and political correspondent (formerly of WTTG) * Nancy Loo – West Coast bureau correspondent (formerly of

, WFLD and WABC-TV) * Rich McHugh – Investigative correspondent (formerly of Fox News, MSNBC, ABC News and NBC News) *Aaron Nolan – Mid-South correspondent of Morning in America (formerly of KARK-TV) *Kellie Meyer – Washington correspondent (formerly of WENY-TV) * Markie Martin – Dallas bureau correspondent (formerly of KOCO-TV) * Tom Negovan – New York City bureau correspondent (formerly of

and KYW-TV) * Brooke Shafer – Miami correspondent (formerly of WFOR-TV) * Robert Sherman – foreign correspondent (formerly of Fox News) *Nick Smith – Midwest correspondent of Morning in America (formerly of WTTG, and WTVD) *Leland Vittert – national correspondent/weeknight anchor of On Balance with Leland Vittert (formerly of Fox News) *Natasha Zouves – weekend anchor/correspondent (formerly of KGO-TV)

Notable former on-air talent

* Felicia Bolton * Elizabeth Chmurak * Joe Donlon (now at WBBM-TV) * Janel Forte * Paul Gerke * Ashley Ketz * Rob Nelson (reporter), Rob Nelson (now at Newsy) *Albert Ramon (now at WBBM-TV) *Dean Reynolds *Rudabeh Shahbazi *Michael Shure *Ji Suk Yi

References

External links

* {{NXST TV 2020s American television news shows 2020 American television series debuts Nexstar Media Group English-language television shows WGN America original programming