NBC News, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC affiliates and TODAY

I couldn’t get captures of NBC 10 but here’s a pseudo tour of the set done on Facebook Live. It’s pretty much all video walls but some further out than others to create the allusion of depth and some animate ever so slowly it doesn’t appear to be moving at first glance. Here’s a gallery from the Business Journal with more photos of the site and a few of each studio.

However I like NECN’s studio the most, since I don’t receive the channel I have to rely on social media. This was posted on their Instagram Stories. I think I like this set the best, it’s video walls but has light boxes, the walls are curved and one has a tracked plasma monitor that you can position over any spot in the curve.

Mika and Joe on Morning Joe are still hosting from the improvised set in Florida.




Compare with the NYC studio while they were in New York last week.

I wouldn’t call it an improvised set. I think that’s their set at their house. When they do the two box it looks like a regular DTL position but when they show both of them in the same shot it looks bad. In my opinion when they do the two shot the camera should be more at eye level and not above them. I am curious about the technology they’re using to do this I imagine they have two or three PTZ cameras but I’d like to see how it’s sent back to 30 Rock. LiveU and Dejeros are reliable enough now combined with a business internet connection (likely from Comcast)they can achieve sub second delays along with return prompters.

That's really interesting. How long have they been doing the show from home for, and how often?

The sets only been there since at-least September in its current form, based on this tweet I sent. Before it was them each in front of monitors - two feeds - one each for Joe and Mika. However I should mention that Joe has broadcast from the NBC Sports HQ in Stamford, CT using the same backgrounds. I only knew it was from Stamford because halfway through you could see the NBC Sports newsroom.

I expect they will originate from their home studio in Florida about half the year. It was reported in some trade websites it’s because if they spend more than half the year in Florida they don’t have to pay income and property taxes. Sometimes Mika is coming from New York and Joe in Florida and vice versa . Even though they’re married they have their individual days off.

Producers have said in the trade magazines (anonymously of course) that having Joe and Mika remotely has ruined some of the spontaneity and edge the show had when they were in New York.

And @JoeNBC and @morningmika ‘s home @Morning_Joe home studio. I wish they’d move the camera right in front of Mika and Joe, respectively so the lines are straight. It appears the cameras are positioned in the center. @newscaststudio pic.twitter.com/MgKa2830Kq

— Ryan Olsen (@rkolsen) September 9, 2019

4th hour of Today is revamped, somehow, now including a studio audience and a cringy new opening voiceover.




But nothing can save this hour from the boring blandness of Jenna Bush Hager though......

That's almost endearingly naff. Even by US TV standards, that makes the show seem incredibly lightweight.
The VO is particularly laughable "TOOOODAY with HOOODDDA and JJEEENNNNA"

NBC is only doing this for the Thursday and Friday shows. Apparently NBC liked the feeling the show had during the Winter Olympics. MSNBC also airs All In with a Chris Hayes on Friday nights with an audience in the same studio. During commercial breaks of All In they run an ad push back with a small inset box of one of the POV cameras in the back and it’s amazing how fast they turn the sets around, and how the LED walls just part in the middle.

However this whole thing with Today and All In coming from Studio 6A seems like the news divisions is justifying them holding onto a studio. A studio that could be making more money either rented to an in house production (Meredith Vieira’s Show and briefly Late Night with Jimmy Fallon when Studio 6B was being renovated for months in the lead up to his Tonight Show gig) before that it hosted Dr. Oz. The entertainment division has used it just last week (or the week before) when after the series finale of The Good Place they dressed it all up (covering the video walls) for a 20 minute live retrospective / interview with Seth Meyers

That being said I’m in the area of the country where we are one of the two 2 NBC affiliates that don’t clear the show in the morning, so I usually don’t see it unless I see something online. The second station I think clears it overnight as part of NBC’s late night lineup with the show airing from 2:07 - 3AM. The overnight time slot isn’t cleared here as well - NBC seems to be perfectly fine if an affiliate covers the programming with NBC syndicated shows. I assume WBAL gets better ratings on the show they air Live with Kelly and Ryan and gets more money. I don’t know what they did with NBC to never clear the show but I understand they are or were one of the stronger NBC affiliates and a stronger Today stations.

Is the 4th hour shown by all affiliates, and is it shown immediately after the 3rd hour by them all. As an outsider looking in it would make much more sense to lump together the 3rd and 4th hour as a morning show that followed the breakfast show.

No to both. Some air it early morning the day after broadcast (like the example RKOlsen gave above) and others don’t air it at all in favour of shows purchased by the affiliate’s parent company or by shows the individual affiliate believes will perform better in their market.

All but two stations don’t clear the fourth hour in the morning, one station (WBAL) doesn’t even clear it at all even the over night hour. Some stations split them up between the second and third hour or between the third or fourth. But most clear it straight through.

The overnight hour at 2:07 is frequently covered usually by same day repeats of NBC U syndicated programs. It’s a decision done at the local level.

Wow that is awful. Just plain awful.