Here's How Brian Williams Began Amazon's First Newscast

Brian Williams didn't travel over the rainbow to return to the anchor's chair—just to Culver City, California. The former face of NBC Nightly News ushered Amazon into the brave new world of news programming on Tuesday when Election Night Live with Brian Williams debuted on Prime Video at 5 p.m. ET. And Williams was well-aware that he was standing on hallowed Hollywood ground. The one-night-only special streamed from the cavernous Amazon MGM soundstage where Dorothy Gale and her fantastical friends set off down the Yellow Brick Road to meet the wonderful Wizard of Oz back in 1939. Flash-forward to 2024, though, and the Yellow Brick Road has been replaced by a giant wraparound Volume Wall—state-of-the-art technology that allows filmmakers to simulate any environment, from Oz to Tatooine. But Election Night Live producers Glenn Weiss and Ricky Kirshner decided to keep the setting closer to home. "We have decided to put ourselves in the middle of America," Williams said, as the wall behind him displayed images of grassy plains, flowing waterfalls, and the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. His own anchor desk sat in the middle of the soundstage, with a highway directly on the screen behind him. For the record, Williams seemed to relish that his Hollywood surroundings required him to not only be a newsman but also a showman. Election Night Live opened with a three-minute narrated segment filled with jokes that wouldn't have been out of place on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Watch the opening sequence of Election Night Live with Brian Williams below: Williams may have been at the center of the action, but he wasn't the only person on that giant soundstage. The anchor was flanked by two panels of commentators and analysts filled with fresh faces from new media companies like Puck as well as veterans of legacy outlets like CNN. Seated at a table on the right side of the soundstage were Williams' former NBC News colleague Abby Huntsman, Puck Media's Baratunde Thurston, Democratic strategist James Carville, political consultant Mike Murphy, Republican strategist Erin Perrine, and historian Douglas Brinkley. Meanwhile, a set of couches on the other side of the soundstage held former CNN correspondents Jessica Yellin and Candy Crowley, Republican strategist Kristin Davison, former deputy press secretary for the Donald Trump administration Sarah Matthews, and former Ohio representative Tim Ryan. And that wasn't all! Former CNN and NBC News journalist Erin McPike was on map duty—Amazon's version of CNN's Big Board. And Thurston's Puck colleague Tara Palmeri sat next to Williams at the anchor desk. As Palmeri explained, she was originally supposed to be beaming in from the campaign headquarters of former President Donald Trump, but had her credentials pulled when his advisors expressed displeasure at her coverage. Instead of Palmeri, New York Post reporter Lydia Moynihan was on the ground at Trump HQ, while former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith beamed in from Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign home. Other correspondents reporting in from far-flung locations included Willem Marx from London and ex-CNN anchor Poppy Harlow from Paris. The final piece of the Prime Video puzzle was Weather Channel meteorologist Jim Cantore, who remotely recapped the Election Day conditions around the country. His introduction was the first production hiccup of the night, as Williams initially couldn't see Cantore on his screen. Once that problem resolved, the meteorlogist's virtual weather map was notably slow to rise out of the floor. While the first half-hour of Election Night Live was largely given over to welcomes and introductions, Williams did anchor one interview before going to a commercial break. Outgoing North Carolina governor Roy Cooper was the special's first guest and predicted Harris as the evening's victor. With that, Williams tossed to a short commercial break, which featured two ads for Prime Video—including one teasing the streamer's Thursday Night Football match-up between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Baltimore Ravens—as well as spots for the Viking cruise line and Balance of Nature supplements. Weiss was definitely right when he told us that Election Night Live wouldn't "look like every other news show out there." But that mixture of commercials, at least, felt like classic cable TV.

Politics

Here's How Brian Williams Began Amazon's First Newscast

A number of ex-CNN and NBC News journalists joined Williams in studio

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