NewsNation Goes 24 hours on Weekdays From April 24

NewsNation Cable TV News 

            The Nexstar owned cable news channel, NewsNation, is going 24 hours of news programming from April 24.  The network is to add a new 4 hour news block called "NewsNation Now". Also on that date is the launch of the previously announced  "The Hill" named after their sister outlet. 

            This is NewsNation filling in the last gap in their daytime line up which is currently filled with off network reruns of "Blue Bloods" a hold over from the networks' WGN America days.  The channel has been expanding its line up on weekdays since the start of NewsNation in 2020. Recently, the overnight paid programming had been replaced with more reruns of primetime news programming and expanded "NewsNation Live with Marni Hughes" to 3 hours.  

        "NewsNation Now" will air for 4 hours between 1-5pmET,  The 1-3pm ET block will be anchored by a rotating  group of anchors, until one is announced. The 3-5pm ET block will be anchored by Nichole Berlie, who current program "Rush Hour" is ending on the 21st. The rotating block will be anchored by current weekend anchor Natasha Zouves, chief Washington correspondent Blake Burman and correspondents Markie Martin, Keleigh Beeson and Brooke Shafer.  

                Here's the line up from April 24 : 

6-7 AM ET– Early Morning hosted by Mitch Carr

 7-10 AM ET– Morning in America with Adrienne Bankert
10 AM-1 PM ET– NewsNation Live with Marni Hughes
1-3 PM ET – NewsNation Now
3-5 PM ET– NewsNation Now with Nichole Berlie
5-6 PM ET – The Hill
6-7 PM ET– Elizabeth Vargas Reports
7-8 PM ET– On Balance with Leland Vittert
8-9 PM ET– Cuomo hosted by Chris Cuomo
9-10 PM ET– Dan Abrams Live hosted by Dan Abrams
10-11 PM ET– Banfield hosted by Ashleigh Banfield

            The weekend line up stays the same with reruns of "Last Man Standing" ,etc and "NewsNation Prime" from 7-10pm ET. 

Press Release after the Jump 

NewsNation to Launch Political Program "The Hill"

NewsNation Cable TV News 

        Nexstar owned cable news network, NewsNation, is expanding their programming on weekdays for more news-based content.  April 2023 seems to be a pivot month for the network as it launches "Elizabeth Vargas Reports" on April 3.  From April 24, a new program based off sister organization, The Hill, willl launch.

      "The Hill", the program will be a political ensemble program that will be hosted by Leland Vittert, who will also continue to host his 7pm ET program "On Balance". "The Hill" will air weekdays at 5pm ET. This also means that "Rush Hour" which currently airs from 5-7pm will be gone. NewsNation has indicated that they will be going 24/5 by April, so there's a chance they will be doing live news from 1-5pmet from then as well. 

         Part of the program's panel will be: NewsNation's  political editor Chris Stirewalt, senior political contributor George Will, former Obama aide Johanna Maska, and associate editor of TheHill.com, Niall Stanage.  

       The program will be done from Washington D.C and Leland Vittert's 7pm show will also be moving there from it's current spot in Chicago.   

            NewsNation also expanded from March 6, "NewsNation" live to 3hours running from 10am-1pmET. 

Press release after the bump

NewsNation to expand into daytime

Newsnation Cable TV News   

    

       Cable news and entertainment network , NewsNation,  is making changes from September 19th by expanding live programming.    The news that Chris Cuomo is coming to Newsnation  (Ed note: I'm not a fan  of)  has meant sadly, NewsNation's mission of just having the news in primetime is really over as  NewsNation Prime with Marini Hughes will be ending.  

    Hughes will be moving to a new 2 hour block called "NewsNation Live"  which will air weekdays 10am-12pmet replacing  2 hours of "Blue Bloods" the network has been shedding away it's non live programming, it seems that "In the Heat of the Night" has left.    "NewsNation Live" will premiere on September 19th.  Hughes is the last standing of the original three NewsNation anchors from the launch, she had been holding the primetime slot solo for a year, so no more primetime news programming and now talk reigns. 

   

        Cuomo will be sliding into primetime in October.   

 Here's the line up from September 19th (all times ET)

                                                 6am  Early Morning

                                                  7am  Morning in America 

10am NewsNation Live with Marni Hughes 

12-5pm  Syndicated rerun programming        

Press release after the jump

NewsNation to Launch 6 AM ET News Program

Newsnation  TV News 

        The Nexstar owned news and entertainment cable channel is expanding it's news offering to 6AMET starting June 27.   

  

        Early Morning will air for 1 hour from 6-7AMET , anchored by Mitch Carr. Carr, joins News Nation from KPNX-TV in Phoenix where he was a weekend news anchor. Early Morning will lead into Morning in America  , the network's morning show.  Carr will also appear on Morning in America which his hosted by Andrienne Bankert. 

       News Nation currently runs reruns of the drama "Elementary" in the slot.  The network's morning line up look like this from  June 27: 

   

                          6am ET  : Early Morning

                          7amET : Morning in America (3 hours) 

                          10amET: Reruns  of off network syndicated programming 

 

     The channel's news offering has been expanding since the launch in 2020. It does 7 hours per weeknight, 3 hours on weekend evenings, and 3 hours in the morning, this expansion will put them at 86 hours. 

 

         Press release after the jump

                    

NewsNation: Expands programming, "Donlon Report" ending

NewsNation TV News 

           Nexstar owned, Chicago-based news channel, NewsNation  is making programming expansions and changes once again. 

             Already expanded on weekends as of March 5, "NewsNation Prime" weekend version is on for 3 hours 7 to 10pm Eastern.  

  

          Since February 24th, News Nation had been doing a special report news cast at 11pm Eastern  with Prime anchor Marni Hughes and "On Balance" host Leland Vittert. This program is now permeant and will be anchored by  Hughes and Vittert. 

     

     "Morning in America" which launched in September 2021, as a 7-10am Eastern morning show will be expanding to four hours from 6am Eastern come June.  This will be replacing an hour of off-network dramas that currently air in the hour. 

           Also another NewsNation original host is leaving, Joe Donlon, who started when the network launched as a news program in primetime as co-anchor in September 2020, moved to his show in March 2021, "The Donlon Report", will be leaving on March 25. 

   

   Starting March 28, early evening news program, "Rush Hour" will be running 2 hours from 5 to 7pm Eastern.

     For Clarity:

     

• "News Nation Prime" weekends expanded to 7 to 10pm Eastern from March 4th 
• Live newscast at 11pmet to continue, anchored by Marni Hughes and Leland Vittert
• "Donlon Report" is set to end on March 25, and will be replaced by a 2nd hour of "Rush Hour on March 28
• "Morning in America" will expand to 4 hours from June (planned)

  "On Balance with Leland Vittert", "News Nation Prime with Marni Hughes" ,"Dan Abrams Live "and "Banfield" will be staying at their times and hosts from 7-11pmET.  

Press release after the jump

WGN America to Rebrand as NewsNation

Cable TV News WGN America  NewsNation 

 

      Nexstar Media Group's WGN America will be rebranding as News Nation, on the 6th month anniversary launch of "News Nation" also on that date , they are adding two new live hours of programming.  

  

    On  March 1st, cable network WGN America, will be full rebranding into NewsNation.  Weekdays live programming which currently runs from 8-11pmet/ 7-10pm CT will be expanding to start at 6pmet.  

  

    NewsNation Early Edition  will launch  at 6pmet , Nichole Berlie, who currently co-anchors the weekend  version of NewsNation  will be the anchor of this new hour.  

       

        The Donlon Report    current co-anchor  of the weeknight version of NewsNation , Joe Donlon will host his own hour long program weeknights 7pmet.  This program will have a  mixture of news and interviews. 

         The current News Nation program will be branded as NewsNation Prime;  Marni Hughes and Rob Nelson, who have been part of the anchoring team since launch will continue to anchor that. The program will be cut to 2 hours as , the previously announced,  Banfield program launches that evening at 10pmet. 

  

           NewsNation launched on September 1st 2020 on WGN America, Nexstar purachased WGN America along with it's parent company, Tribune, in 2019.  News Nation is viewing themselves as a news service to against the opinion filled cable news channels on American TV.   

 Currently, WGN America airs reruns of dramas and sitcoms through the day with News in the evening, it does come to wonder what happens to those on March 1st as the rebrand happens, or is Nexstar doing a piece meal approach and will wait a while to expand further? 

Press release after the jump 

First Watch: WGN America does News in Primetime

WGN America News Nation  Cable TV News  Opinion 

     From 1978 to 2014,  WGN America (known of a few years as Superstation WGN) beamed WGN TV channel 9 from Chicago to America.  It aired Chicago sports and WGN News. During the last decade of that time it aired WGN's  last hour of Midday news and the nine pm news. You even got the lottery.  WGN America pulled that in 2014.   Viewers who missed WGN Chicago news could watch online as modern world had allowed for that, but it was a change.

    In 1980, Ted Turner launched CNN, the first 24 hour cable news channel, over time though the idea of a cable news channel being there just for the news has kind of died.  In 2014,  Al Jazeera America tried and put on a good product , but it had low  ratings and when oil prices dropped AJ thought it would be better to cut loses and give up in 2016.  (AJ is owned by the Qatari government)   Most  American cable news is more about how to keep viewers watching with excessive use of breaking news, debates and annoyance.   MSNBC started as a news channel with NBC News and Mircosoft found success in not doing that and instead having opinion shows that lean politically left, doing the mirror of FOX News leaning to the right. 

              Cable news has  an average of 700,000 viewers watching their daily prime time programming, FOX news leans towards the 2 million mark, MSNBC in the 1 million. CNN tried middle of the road and doing the news, but their prime time has filled with panels or the anchors being talking heads themselves.    The prime time programming has become more join a camp you like and get daily affirmation.  It does make the country look more divided and like Twitter, doesn't offer a full picture of society because  they are fighting for a small amount of viewers compared to the population.  Most Americans trust local news over any  other media, with The Weather Channel  being the highest in trust for a national news channel.

       In 2019, Nexstar, a large local media conglomerate, bought the Tribune Company, which owned WGN and WGN America.  Nexstar owns mostly local TV stations whose main thing is local news. They have alot of them, the largest owner in the country. They have reporters at stations who work in the television markets  most national stories are someone's local story.

more after the jump

WGN America's NewsNation announces anchor teams

WGN America  News 

         
         WGN America's  national newscast  is coming  September 1st , and on Tuesday the anchor teams have been announced.
         
         "News Nation" will run  news in primetime from 8pmet to 11pmet  7 nights a week, as an unbiased less political news stories. It will be anchored from WGN-TV studios in Chicago.  Today
Nexstar, the parent company, has announced who will be anchoring the program.


              The Weekday anchor team will consist of  Joe Donolan, who is currently an anchor at WGN-TV,  Marni Hughes, a reporter from KCPQ-Seattle,  Rob Nelson, who has worked at ABC News, and Albert Ramon, will be the Chief Meteorologist, comes from KVUE-TV.

               The weekend anchor team will consist of  Rudabeh Shahazi, who was recently an anchor a WFOR-TV in Miami. Nichole Berlie who comes from WCVB-TV in Boston,  Aaron Nolan comes from KARK-TV (also Nexstar).  Gerard Jebally, will be weekend weather, coming from KSHB-TV in Kansas City. 


            They have also announced  bureau correspondents.   Tom Negovan, from WGN-TV becomes their New York correspondent,  Nancy Loo, from WGN-TV becomes their  LA correspondent,   Markle Martin, Dallas Correspondent, coming from KOCO-TV, and Brian Entin, willbe the Miami correspondent coming from WSVN-TV.

                          Reporting will be coming from  Nexstar's 110 newsroom and teams of reporters across the stations they own.


              You can read the press release here 

 and visit WGN America's website here 
             

WGN America to Have News Once Again

TV NEWS 

    Nexstar Media the owners of over 170 local stations in the United States, announced Wednesday that come summer they will be launching a new 3 hour national prime time newscast on cable network owned by the company , WGN America.

     For those that might not remember , WGN America was launched in the 1970's as cable repeater of WGN-TV Chicago it brought the nation, programming relayed from the independent station in Chicago. This is how much the nation was able to see Cubs game, along other Chicago mainstay teams.  Also WGN's newscasts aired nationally on the station. At one point, the station was called Superstation WGN  aired WGN Chicago's Midday and 9pm newscasts.  Even after the station stopped being a full national relay of WGN-TV In 2014,  the station had dropped airing these simulcasts in the idea of moving to full national general channel.

        In 2019, Nexstar Media completed a purchase of the Tribune Company (named after the Chicago Tribune, which started WGN-TV in 1948) the owners of WGN-TV and WGN America. WGN America has tried it's hand at original and original to the channel programming, but now it seems they want to go a news direction.

       Nexstar announced Wednesday, they will be launching "News Nation" will be broadcast from WGN-TV's home in Chicago, a 3 hour prime (7-10 PM CT) newscast on WGN America.  This will be Nexstar's first attempt at working in the national news casting realm , as they normally only broadcast in local news. They have the resources to do such thing with a mass over over 170 local stations, stretching across the nation.

      The primetime idea is interesting  to note as the US cable news channels fail to provide news in those hours , as they focus on politics and opinions, it may provide an oasis for an audience looking for something different.

   From the press release:

Nexstar’s Sean Compton, Executive Vice President of WGN America, believes News Nation will fill an important void in the current television news landscape.
“No one else is delivering news in prime-time,” said Compton. “Others are airing entertainment programming, sports programming or opinion shows, which creates a great opportunity for WGN America to provide an alternative in this daypart with News Nation. Across our markets, we consistently hear from viewers who are seeking straight-ahead, unbiased news reporting that is grounded in fact, not opinion. News Nation will deliver exactly that.”

       WGN-TV's  current presidential/  news director, Jennifer Lyons, will be overseeing the task.   News Nation is also set to be launched as an app called newsnationnow.   The program is set to launch in the summer.

More after the jump