Here’s Where The Weekend ‘NBC Nightly News’ Comes From
This is where Lester Holt anchors the weekend edition of NBC’s ‘Nightly News’ show. This is Media Room 1, which is one of four small studios inside Studio 6E, otherwise known as the Global Media Center.
The control room for all four is right next door. This was the main news desk used by Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams in 3C from 1998 till 2008. In ’08, a new set and desk was built in 3B where the weeknight show is done now. The control room for 3B is under the ‘Today’ studio in the basement of Studio 1A, across 49th Street.
Below you see the single robotic camera in the studio on the left and just to the left of the camera is a production desk with the prompter controls. That’s me at the desk and on the right, a shot of me in the monitors in front of the desk. Notice the virtual set on the wall monitor. Enjoy and share.
The desk to the left of the camera is a news producer desk….our studio prompter is in the control room…
Can I ask why they would change control room mid show? I’m sure they have a perfectly good reason but it seems a bit disruptive to switch during a show?
Tell us the truth Bobby, when you sat behind the desk didn’t you feel like sitting in for Brian?
While this camera head is robotic, Nightly News does have an actual camera operator behind the rig for the show. The robotic head is used during the day to line up shots of talking heads that appear on MSNBC, CNBC, Weather Channel and others.
We also refer to these rooms as “Nooks.”
This is control room 1A, just under the ‘Today’ stage. The first couple of hours of ‘Today’ are done here and then the show is handed off to another control room for the rest of the show. All programs from Studio 3B are switched from here including ‘Nightly News’. ‘Rock Center’ was also done from 3B and switched from 1A.