- [floor director] once you do your first hit for the bar testimony, we'll bring you over here. - [director] can i see 44 please? rob, good. thank you. 46 at the weather wall, lovely, watch shading on 46. - news nation is all about news. absent of bias, absent of opinion. - [director] we're two and a half minutes away from air after i cut off you'll be on 42. you're gonna come out to a three shot after i cut off a 44, rob's going to the main desk. - [jennifer] i think we are so right now, hyper focused on politics. there's so much other news out there on a daily basis. - [director] okay, stand negovan by. joe, can you hear me? - [joe] i've had several people say to me already. this show is exactly what i've been looking for. i don't want someone to tell me how i think. tell me the news. - [director] turn the lights down in the weather center, please. who's in the background there. who's walking around. - there's a million people at the weather wall. - get the people out of there. - [rob] the hard part is behind the scenes. we do the light lifting. the people you don't see do the heavy lifting. - [director] we're all good, one minute to air. - [rob] the viewers should know that and on air people should remember. - 45. - [director] okay, she knows she's coming out to camera 43. joe knows he's coming out to 42. okay, 30 seconds. - i hope that they feel it's trustworthy. i hope that they feel it's entertaining. we are going to deliver the news without the bias. - all right team, let's rock and roll. - have a good show in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, ready camera 43, three, two, one, fade up 43 music. - [marni] good evening, i am-- - [director] ready 42. (plane engine roaring) (bright upbeat music) - [sean] the building of news nation for me starts in october of last year we first presented the idea. so we called it project neutral. and the reason we call it a project neutral was because we're so sick and tired of the polarization of news. news should not be polarizing. i approached our chairman and ceo, perry sook about using the assets of our newsrooms. when nexstar said they were buying tribune, we were gonna put together 110 newsrooms, 5,400 reporters, bunch of helicopters, satellite trucks. and it made sense to figure out what to do next, utilizing the strengths of all those assets. about three or four weeks after that meeting, i'm sitting in my office and jen lyons, who's one of the most accomplished local news directors in television was in my office and she said-- - hey, you're in charge of wgn america. you know what you really should do? you should do a newscast in prime time, a national newscast that's unbiased. - i actually had planned on approaching jen about the position anyway, and she made it real easy for me. - a couple of weeks later here i am. i'm working for wgn america because we kinda had the same thought. (bright upbeat music) - [sandy] we've fallen into the trap of taking a big story and everyone having an opinion on it. everyone's shouting everyone talking about issues, but not really understanding the issue. - it became inherently clear as i would watch the cable news networks to try and find out what was going on. i couldn't find out what was going on. - they kind of abandoned news a long time ago. when you look at the other cable news channels. - and that's what led me to say, there needs to be a national newscast because there's not enough information. it's only centered on dc and politics. - [sean] there's a lot that happens in the middle of the country and we're gonna be able to fill that void. - it's so funny because when we set out to do this project, so many people were like, how are you gonna do that? and it's simple. this is what we learned in school. - in my journalism class, we were trained a certain way and that was to report facts without bias. - this is what journalism is supposed to be. and this is what local journalism, local newsrooms do right now. they're not telling people how to think. it's the cable network model that we're not going to do. - it hasn't been done in a long time and it has not been done to this scale. - so we announced in january, january 15th, that we were going to do this project. i flew to new york, i flew to dc. we kind of started getting everything to go. and then boom. - the pandemic hit right as we were hitting the gas on this thing. - and it brought everything to a screeching halt, but we had to keep going. we had a deadline, we knew we were gonna put this on the air. (clock ticking) - does anyone have a fever, cough, or shortness of breath? have you come in contact with anyone known to have covid-19? in the last 14 days have you traveled to a normal free hotspot. - 98.4 - 99.1 - 97.8. this is the bramco safe orientation, workers must comply with all osha regulations. hard hats, safety glasses, long sleeve shirt, long pants, and work boots required at all times. now with coronavirus going around don't wander anywhere you don't need to be within the building. be exactly at the news studio. - started the project second week of march, we were here a couple of weeks and that's when the covid-19 really hit hard. - covid-19 was such a curve ball. and as we were planning to build this newsroom, it became suddenly urgent. (upbeat music) - [gary] we left for a week between nexstar wgn bramco we all tried to figure out the next step. how do we get the work done? how do we keep people safe? there was some very good protocol put together. face masks became mandatory. the wristbands are for answering the questions properly. not long after we got that started, they brought in the temperature checks. we staggered start time so that everybody wasn't coming in at the same time, we'd have crews starting at six, seven, eight o'clock so that it gave people an opportunity to get through the protocol and get to work and be productive. - and in a strange way it was nice to be able to hire so many people when so many people were losing jobs. (bright upbeat music) - with all the cancellations, from all the concerts, plays, everything else. the stagehands were not in a good spot. and this put a lot of guys to work for quite some time. (bright upbeat music) - it actually felt good that we were in the hiring phase. we had construction when everyone else was in shutdown mode. it slowed us down a little bit, but we were able to stay on course. - the schedule was extremely tight. and when we got involved in the project, they had a rough idea of what they wanted here, but we didn't have drawings for what we're gonna build. but the demolition got started. - [jennifer] a small team at channel 9 got together. and we kind of sketched one out. - [sandy] we sat in a room with the construction crews, with the designers, with the musicians, with the graphic artists. and it was just a very open ended up conversation. and within a few weeks they came back with drawings. - and we have these six screens here, which can go to every city in america that we're covering or wherever the top story is. - [sandy] the set is modern. it's clean. it has beautiful technology. - time zones up here. we digitize those. - it's really something i've never seen before. we kinda came up with a small version of it and then we put it on steroids basically when we took it to the set designer. - [sandy] i think it'll just help our storytelling and just showing the beauty of our country. and we can really make it as big as we can imagine. - when you come in, there's gonna be all these monitors. and so i'll just walk you through the show. so you guys have in your head, what we're gonna do. now, we'll be like, good evening. there's a pandemic. and in st. louis, they're worried about school. - [dave harpe] jen is currently showing our director what we got going on with the overall set. - the nicer the home, the kind of the better experience there may be. - and then those monitors. so at the end of we've got more news nation coming up. and we're saying that the monitor slowly are all automated and go flat. (bright upbeat music) -early in april, we had construction documents to go ahead and start the process of building the set. (bright upbeat music) but even at that point, there were still things that we didn't know. - if there is a way to be able to, recess is not the word, but maybe can those drop down any further than that? - [jen] it's too high. - it's at 32 inches. - [jen] that feels fine. - [sean] we have a lot of working space in here that we can do. - i think it looks okay, right don't you think? - election night, breaking news coverage, weather events. this is a very versatile set. - this is the main two shot. skyline's behind it. if we were to add the meteorologist and the breaking news anchor, where would they go? - you're real tight to your two guests. if you come off of them, it's a better looking shot, if you're working with three cameras, you can do a four shot, a single, a single or a two. - so my only thought is on election night, where is panelists are gonna be and how we going to produce election night with a couple of other people on the set. - people don't watch it as set. they watch the content, but the set is the living room. it's not about how beautiful and glamorous the house is it's the company that they're with. - i can tell you that i've never built something like this before all over zoom. - [sandy] i think we only met four people in person that we hired before covid-19 shut everything down. - we did zoom call after zoom call after zoom call to try and find the right people. and it's kind of amazing. i never thought we could do it. - and so suddenly i was hiring our news anchors. sight unseen they never met me in person. they never came to our building. - we didn't wanna look for anchors that were branded with any specific network. we wanted to look for a team that had done a lot of local news. (bright upbeat music) - i approached them (laughs). i heard news nation was happening and i wanted to be part of it. (bright upbeat music) - i saw right up on one of the websites that covers tv news. told my agent, sniff around, see what these folks in chicago are up to. (bright upbeat music) - i was interested in this project from the jump. i went to sandy and jen and said, "i don't know what you're looking for, or where you are in this process, but i'm interested." - usually you have people come in and sit on set next to the person that you're trying to fill. and usually you're trying to fill one hole, not an entire cast. - what are your favorite gestures when you're doing the forecast? - i'm a big fan of the warm air from the south. - we got on zoom with albert and within 10 minutes, jennifer offered him a plane ticket to come and fly to chicago. and i just remember laughing. i just thought, well, that's blown our whole. - it was a email from jennifer lyons on a wednesday, a zoom call on a thursday. and the next monday i was here in chicago interviewing and then a week after that, it was signing paperwork. - [sandy] we basically hired him within four days of meeting him. - and i think all he does is watches the weather. - we went out, did marni tell you about dinner the other night? a handful of us went out for dinner the other night and albert and gerard, our two meteorologists were with us. and you could tell the clouds were gathering and these two were on their phones on the radar. and the waiter brought our food. and albert said, you might wanna move us under some cover. the rain's coming. and the waiter said, "how long do we have?" and albert said, "12 minutes." and 12 minutes later here came the rain. - people can smell when something is forced or phony or an act, or you're just turning it on because the cameras are on. when it's real and genuine and organic, i think that that comes across. - we are passionate about what we do. we're dedicated to our mission and we're gonna have some fun along the way. - every one up on that desk is a seasoned, professional. we're also all, i think good people who take the job seriously, but also know when to have fun and again, to be authentic and relatable and human. - [marni] what is your go to dance moves? - oh, marni, well played. [indistinct] - [sandy] there were so many people who are interested and the amount of resumes we got was insane. - and sandy, the news director to show you the power of national exposure said, "i have to admit i'm fan girling a little bit right now, because i was a morning ap when you were doing that overnight show. and i thought you were great on that show." - [sean] rob nelson is one of new york's best. and we were excited that he wanted to move to chicago. - the offer came in march, contract signed in april and here we sit. - ladies and gentlemen, rob nelson-- (crowd cheering drowns out the speaker) - [sandy] it took a leap of faith and said, yes. and so we started hiring over the computer and it was extraordinary. - and some of our people that have come producers and talent, they've never been to chicago before. and i said, "trust us. we're gonna do it." - i left seattle after eight years on the evening news. - born and raised in southern new jersey. - i was born, i was raised in texas, my entire career in texas. - [marni] for me, it was a leap of faith to leave a job. and people that i loved. - marni hughes is very popular in seattle, but she's worked in fort wayne and she's worked in other midwest markets. - i grew up in small town america. and i think that has prepared me for what we're doing with news nation and who we wanna reach. - [sandy] we were picturing her with joe and we hadn't even hired joe yet. - [sean] joe donlon came from the pacific northwest and worked in chicago. - i knew jen and sandy. they had hired me in chicago. i trusted them. and i knew that if anyone could do this, it's the two of them. and i said, "if i'm lucky enough to get this opportunity, i am all in." - sign in sheet is going around somewhere. make sure you signed in. and again, so i know who not to yell at. starting on the three week, i think everybody knows we're just about wrapped up in studio three. second floor news room, overhead rough-ins, are moving forward. i requested the sprinkler guy to be here tomorrow. i coordinate, right? and so i don't necessarily know everything about everything. and i'm the first to admit that, but i ask the right questions. i get the right information. and we pass that information to the proper people. (bright upbeat music) - they used to joke that i produced by committee. i would talk to everyone about it. and then we would bubble up to the top. what was the story of the day? we're doing political stories, but we're not super political. that's how i am. i like everyone else to, i'm generally the person that will say, "well, what do you think?" and i hear them out because i wanna hear what other people say, because i'm not the smartest person in the room. (bright upbeat music) - i really enjoyed a job like this because it was pushing the envelope of what i do. it pushed me to investigate and learn. and it's what makes it interesting. (bright upbeat music) - [dave] now if you'd have told me, at that meeting that we would be seriously talking about structural reinforcements to the 1960s buildings, to support set, i probably would have started drinking. - a lot of times when we take jobs, people before us laid those roads and your job is to improve it. don't screw it up. - [jennifer] everyone, this is our temporary newsroom. - we're committed on building this out. and i want this to be a project, a broadcast, a newscast that you're proud of every day. and you're proud to say you come to work here and that we are true to our mission. and you can say that we really accomplished something that nobody else has done. and that is to put news on the way the news used to be done, which was absent bias and just the facts. so again, congratulations on being part of the first wave to hit the beaches at normandy here, i'll be back a couple of times in august when we're into rehearsals. - [sean] it's a lot of work. it's not like just coming to work at a tv station and taking over the newsroom. jen has had to build something from scratch. (bright upbeat music) - the construction has been unbelievable. the pace at which they're able to work. sometimes three shifts a day. so 24 hours a day, it has gone up quicker than i could have ever imagined. (bright upbeat music) and it's exceptional. the craftsmanship has been just beautiful. (bright upbeat music) we're gonna start having the editorial meetings every day. we're gonna pretend like it's the real deal. and we're going to discuss the ideas, discuss what we need to get, how are we going to make it fact driven and not opinion driven and making sure we're getting all sides of the story. not just the side that we think we should have. this there'll be healthy discussions. everybody's opinion counts. we won't discount anyone, we'll just have the discussion. so speak up. so here we go. and richard's going to run this. so go ahead, richard, you're on. - this is a bigger meeting than it's normally going to be. i'm gonna say, because i use only people will be spread out across the day. i think we'll start with the digital people just to see what's trending and we'll do the zone producers, talk to their zones. then we'll go to the supervising producers, and anybody else can jump in and we'll go from there. so digital, what do we got, anything? - it's snow in wyoming? yeah, that's number one post-- - i think we will get the benefit of a lot of hard work at the local level. all of these nexstar stations, more than 100 of them and 5,400 journalists are working hard every day to create this interesting content. and what we're doing, is sort of observing from 30,000 feet, all of this content across the country. (gentle music) - you ever heard of lake oroville? - no. - it's too bad, you should have. sometime in early 2017, after trump had gotten in, i saw the ratings in sacramento going through the roof. i couldn't figure out why. so i called the general manager. she told me, well, lake oroville is why we're wall to wall coverage. if this dam breaks, thousands of homes are gonna be lost. billions of dollars in destruction. people are gonna die. i said, "how come i've never heard of it?" cause they were too busy covering the first four weeks of the trump administration. that's why. - i think if the tv industry has succeeded in making two phrases meaningless at this point, breaking news and exclusive, they slapped that graphic and that label on everything. - our responsibility is to communicate, to report the facts and to listen very closely to what's happening so that you at home can understand what's unfolding right before your eyes. - i've heard people ask, is there room for you in this center lane? and i would argue there's plenty of room because we're really the only ones in it. - [marni] but at the end of the day, if you watch our newscast and you agree with something and you disagree with something, then we have done our jobs because we've told both sides. - the question is, will people watch? they say this is what they want. we're about to find out. (bright upbeat music) - it's a lot of people working together to gather the news. they're making beat calls. they're finding out what's going on. they're getting information from their sources and the nice thing about nexstar and news nation is that people are working in their community. so the journalists are gathering the news in their community. - i wanna look at this as sort of a local newscast for the nation. these aren't correspondents who parachute in for a few days and cover the story and then go back to new york, go back to dc, go back to la. these are reporters who know the community. - and then we have zone managers and their sole job is to pay attention to their zone of the united states and work with our newsrooms. what's bubbling up in each community. - it down, it's a more than a one thing. - and there's a saying, i learned long ago when i was in journalism school, that if your mother says she loves you, check it out. - so one of the things that we looked at was unconscious bias. and we needed to figure out how we can remove it, even down to the word because every word matters - we have one priority and that's to deliver you facts without bias. we have people to fact check us. - was it a press conference? or was it just them literally saying hydroxychloroquine is a cure for the coronavirus? - it was kind of-- - we have people who will fact check. i'm not in the newsroom, but if i was, they'd be fact checking me. - i'll give you an example of how this is, it seems really straightforward. but remember the other day, when 150 health experts urged the country to shut down? who are those health experts? - we are an advocate for the viewer. our agenda does not matter. - so it's facts and being right on track with the message and the information. but it's also beautifully told stories that people wanna stop and watch. - so the news nation app is gonna be a 24/7 digital app. and it's very important we have an audio component for people who are jogging or in their car, take a train in a big city. i wanna make sure that you can press listen and get an updated newscast, once an hour, 24 hours a day. (bright upbeat music) - people live busy lives. they're constantly on the go. and i know in my own house, we're multitasking. so we have to reach people where they are. and then it's also, we're about entertaining. - [sean] we'll have to use the radio team, but at least they're radio people. you got a radio cast, the quality audio cast people on the go. - it's important folks to know that we're there for them seven nights a week. and that includes every holiday. we grab a wonderful weekend team. (bright upbeat music) - they are devoting as many resources to the weekend show as they are to the weekday show. four different personalities on that show, but they're gonna develop their own chemistry and their own style. (bright upbeat music) - rudabeh is going down she just doesn't know it yet. she's a player. don't let her fool you. - we'll be live christmas eve, christmas day, new year's eve, new year's day. we're doing news seven nights a week, 365 days a year. (bright upbeat music) - [rob] we're all walking into this as the new kid in class. but here's the thing, the school is new too. (bright upbeat music) - there are people behind the scenes working hours and days and often weeks to produce what you see when you tune into a newscast. (bright upbeat music) - [jen} there's this shot here. this will be as far wide as we can go. can you ped up again and show the shot where we see the lighting grid? every detail is important from the video that we shoot, the interviews that we do, the words that we choose, the graphics that are on the screen. - so if we take a look at our logo, news nation, very clean, very minimal, but very bold. - those are all people behind the scenes working together to make sure that you're getting the best information. (bright upbeat music) - so they're really, to me there hasn't been that point where you have to wake up and go, "wow, look what we've done." because every day there's a big changing event. tonight, there'll be rehearsals. tomorrow night, there'll be weekend rehearsals. - [joe] we've been proceeding here as if we're on the air each night. - and so this thing i don't really know, i think it'll hit me once it's on the air. i think it's hitting jen right now. as we're in rehearsals, it's getting, 15, 16 hour days. it's a grind cause we wanna get it right. - even though we aren't on the air, we're going through it every day as if we are. - [director] stand by, ready, camera 44, ready music. (violin music) - ten, nine, eight, seven. - [rob] i'd say the first year we're gonna develop. we're gonna evolve. - [director] six, five, four. - how it all comes together. there's a trillion moving pieces to it. - [director] three, two, one. - we're gonna do what we do. and we're gonna focus on our mission and we're gonna do the best we can. - you got 44 music cue. - news nation will be a place people can turn to for news they trust, from people they know. - [joe] and look just by virtue of the time we're on. we are going to be competing against some of the biggest names in television. - i need a pan... and pan some of the biggest networks, they have a big headstart, but that's not gonna keep us from what we're doing. i think there is a place for what we're doing and i'm not going to worry about what anyone else is doing. i'm gonna worry about what we're doing. - good question. it is tuesday, august 4th. welcome to news nation. 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New York , United States , New Jersey , Texas , Chicago , Illinois , America , Walter Cronkite , Jen Lyons , Marni Hughes , Sean Joe Donlon ,