NBC News Plans Digital-Video Special Led by Steve Kornacki
By Brian Steinberg
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Steve Kornacki is taking his signature “Big Board” from to mobile video – for at least one night.
has scheduled a special digital show, “Way Too Early: The 2020 Election,” that will stream via NBCNews.com and NBC News’ perches on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on Wednesday at 12:30 p.n. eastern. Kornacki, who often holds forth on MSNBC during election coverage and serves as a national political correspondent for NBC News, will host the program as a sort of post-show after a live-streamed summit from We The People, a coalition of progressive organizations. The event, beamed from Washington, DC. on NBCNews.com, will include several potential Democratic candidates for U.S. President in the 2020 election, such as Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Luis Gutierrez, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Sen. Kamala Harris.
Kornacki’s program may bear more than the usual scrutiny. NBC News has begun hiring producers and other staff for an online streaming network that its digital unit will be experimenting with this summer. Under current plans, the new outlet will offer all original video content, not pick-ups of programs that already exist on NBC or MSNBC. Talent to be deployed is under discussion. NBC News Chairman Andy Lack first unveiled plans for live-streaming in March, noting NBC hoped to launch a product in 2018.
This isn’t the first time Kornacki has helped NBC News test new frontiers. In January, he and Katy Tur figured prominently in a 8 p.m. live-stream centered around President Trump’s 2018 State of the Union address . As part of the proceedings, the pair discussed viral moments from past addresses and shared presidential trivia.The program marked NBC News’ first YouTube live-stream around a “State of the Union” address.
During the new post-show, Kornacki will tap his “Big Board” to walk viewers through the different potential candidates for 2020, then current polling and what to expect in the coming 2018 midterm elections. Karine Jean-Pierre, senior advisor for MoveOn.org ; Shermichael Singleton, a Republican strategist; and; Caitlin Huey-Burns, a national political reporter for RealClearPolitics, will serve as guests.
NBC News’ new streaming effort will join an increasingly crowded field. CBS News operates CBSN, a free stand-alone live-stream that mixes original coverage with some of the segments and programming that airs on the CBS broadcast network. ABC News recently launched a 24/7 live-stream on Roku. Bloomberg offers a stream called Tic-Toc via Twitter that consists of original reporting as well as information provided by Twitter users and verified by the news service’s journalists. Buzzfeed and the business-news focused Cheddar also live-stream programming via social media. Fox News has unveiled plans to launch a subscription streaming service, Fox Nation, in 2018.
