NBC Nightly News May Expand To Full-Hour Newscast

In the last month, Brian Williams has interviewed Tim Geithner on CNBC and guest-hosted on the "Today" show. Now the New York Times reports that he may be expanding his duties on his own show, "NBC Nightly News."

Bill Carter writes that "Nightly," which has dominated the ratings for 20 consecutive weeks, is "positioned to be the first network to expand to a full-hour newscast," according to NBC News President Steve Capus, who did not say when such a move might occur.

On the "Today" show last month, Williams and Matt Lauer joked that he needed water to stay on air past the 30 minute threshold.

CBS News' Katie Couric said last year that she would like a full hour broadcast, and she experimented with a primetime hour-long newscast in January.

Williams began an initiative last week to promote "good news" on his broadcast, a response to viewers' complaints that the news today is too grim.

Comments

[eyepatch]

I love Brian, I watch him everyday!
and if his show goes to an hour
I will watch most of it when I can.......

[gin56]

It would be wonderful if Brian Williams could expand his news broadcast to 1 hour. He is the best anchor. His reporting makes you want to listen.

I hope this happens

[Balancement]

The only good--and accurate--World TV news is BBC News.

[Yve72]

Please do it!
We won't miss Access Hollywood or Entertainment Tonight.

[Ohsherrie]

As if they need even more airtime for repug propagandizing.

If they were serious about wanting to report some "good news" they could fill quite a bit of time interviewing County Sheriffs, City Police Chiefs, State Police Commanders, School Superintendents, and State Departments of Transportation all over the country about how many law enforcement, education and infrastructure maintenance jobs have been saved by the stimulus money given to the state governments. That might even help generate a bit of that confidence that all the pundits say is needed for an economic recovery.

But no, they can only report negatives on that subject unless it's a repug positive.

[ObjectiveRealist]

You should be his producer! I'd watch that show for sure. Well, unless it's at the same time as Olbermann or Maddow, of course.

[AlwaysOptimistic]

NBC is still corporate owned and therefore, care only about selling time. They have an agenda! The only place to get unbiased news is on PBS The Newshour..­..The rest of the so called media news shows are completely about selling airtime for their corporations.

[Bitsko]

Just what the world needs, more hot air.

[IndependenceDame]

LOL!!! You made my day. Thanks!

[Americain]

If NBC has in depth interviews and good reporting like on The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer then I'm all for it. If he delivers on the public's wish for "uplifting" news then he's merely in the entertainment business. I don't want to see overproduced stories with constant music that you see on the Today Show or weepy interviews by Ann Curry or coverage of Paris Hilton and the OctoMom. If you're going to do it then do it right. If Brian Williams and the suits at NBC want to know what a newscast could look like then maybe they should check out the BBC. Otherwise, forget it.

[wayfarer19]

My feeling exactly, Americain. Thanks. Emulating The News Hour with its intelligent reporting and non-screaming, non-name-calling interaction between opposing viewpoints may be beyond the capability of the current crop of "news" programs - but it is a worthy goal.

[Budokan]

An hour of cheerleading for the GOP. Wow.

http://kennethmarkhoover.com

[Kendo]

An hour long?
You mean 30 minutes of so-called news, and 30 minutes of pharmaceutical ads.

[sarahwaters]

i thought katie couric was going to be fired and rightfully so, she is horrible newsperson.

[Yve72]

Leave Katie alone. She saved us from the Moose Hunting Mom.
She's okay in my book.

[fds]

Wow, that typo still isn't fixed...in a deck hed, no less.

[Jim238]

If MSNBC starts including major news events around the world, the hour will be fine. If Williams expands his chicken little stuff and continually harps on all the bad things about to happen to us, forget it.

[texastrixie]

If only this all were "chicken little" stuff instead of being the cold, hard truth! I don't care about pictures of puppies, news about grandma's knitting blankets or schoolkids with foreign penpals. There are tent cities springing up around this country and we didn't see any news about that until this last weekend.

The people in this country need to hear this bad news and yes, even be afraid. We need to start facing how bad this problem could be and supporting the administration and whatever they need us to do.

The food banks in this country are emptying at an alarming rate. Obama should come up each week with something that those of us who are still employed can do to help our fellow Americans. Like one week it should be that everyone who still has a job buys something for donation to the local foodbank. The next week is should be that everyone in the country who still has a job sends a family member down to the food bank to sort food, etc.

Hiding behind good news is what we all want to do. Only the media can gently poke us with a stick and tell us to take that off that bag over our heads. We have to see reality in order to deal with it.

[CaptD]

I think Brian Williams is the best out there now BUT I wish Brian Williams would limit the amount he is being photographed to about 20% of the show and replace that airtime with images, charts and other folks...

We need to learn more about these news makers and not just "stare" at Brian Williams while he talks... I'm interested in what he has to say but I can listen to that while "looking" at additional data/info/­charts...

I believe this will be the model of all future news "shows", less SHOW and more NEWS... The News Data Update instead of the News Show...

[fds]

Lol "MInutes" in headline..­.come on.