Meet the Press

Meet the Press
Created by	Lawrence E. Spivak Martha Rountree
Starring	TBD
Opening theme	The Pulse of Events
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	4,783 as of February 17, 2008
Production
Running time	30 minutes w/commercials (1947-1992); 60 minutes w/commercials (1992-present)
Original release
Network	NBC MSNBC (replay)
Release	November 6, 1947 – Present

This article is about the American public affairs program. For the Australian program, see Meet the Press (Australian TV program).

Meet the Press is a weekly American television news/interview program produced by NBC. It started as a radio show in 1945 as American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press, created and produced by Lawrence E. Spivak, and first broadcast over the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Meet the Press made its television debut on November 6, 1947 and is still on the air as of 2008. It is now the longest-running television show in worldwide broadcasting history (though episode/airtime-wise the ESPN daily series SportsCenter has most air time with over 30,000 editions aired since 1979). Meet the Press is the highest rated of the American television Sunday morning talk shows, although its ratings are less than CBS News Sunday Morning, which airs in the same time slot in most markets.

Meet the Press airs in most markets at 9:00 AM ET, with some stations (including WRC-TV in Washington, DC, where this program is produced) delaying the broadcast until later. The show is also repeated Sunday evenings on MSNBC, early Monday morning on NBC as part of the NBC All Night block and is simulcast on radio stations by Westwood One. It is also available as an audio or video podcast from iTunes.

History

Meet the Press set, November 1975.

Meet the Press and similar Sunday-morning interview shows specialize in interviewing national leaders on issues of state, economics and foreign policy. These shows help fulfill the obligations of the networks to provide a public service to the community.

The show was originally presented as a 30-minute press conference with a single guest and a panel of questioners. Its first hostess was Martha Rountree, to date the program's only female moderator. The original producer, Lawrence E. Spivak, who published the conservative political and cultural magazine The American Mercury until 1954, remained on the show as permanent panel member and then as moderator until November 1975.

Format with Tim Russert

Until Tim Russert's death, the show's format consisted of an extended one-on-one interview with the host, and was sometimes followed by a roundtable discussion or one-on-two interview with figures in adversarial positions, either Congress members from opposite sides of the aisle or political commentators. NBC's Washington bureau chief Tim Russert hosted the show from December 8, 1991 until June 8, 2008, under the full title Meet the Press with Tim Russert. The show expanded to 60 minutes in 1992.

Russert's sign-off was, "That's all for today. We'll be back next week. If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press." During the football season, Russert, a native of Buffalo, New York and avid Buffalo Bills fan, sometimes added, "Go Bills!", and occasionally would ask panelists, "How 'bout those Sabres?" if the Buffalo NHL hockey team is doing well. Spoofs of the show on Saturday Night Live often reflect this addition.

In the past, the final segment of the program, "The Meet the Press Minute," was devoted to topical clips from the show's extensive archives.

Tim Russert died June 13, 2008 of a heart attack while doing voice-over work for the next Sunday program.

Moderators

Martha Rountree	1947 – 1953
Ned Brooks	1953 – 1965
Lawrence E. Spivak	1966 – 1975
Bill Monroe	1975 – 1984
Roger Mudd / Marvin Kalb (co-moderators)	1984 – 1985
Marvin Kalb	1985 – 1987
Chris Wallace	1987 – 1988
Garrick Utley	1989 – 1991
Tim Russert	1991 – 2008

Ratings

See also: Nielsen Ratings

As of April 2006, Meet the Press has been the number one Sunday-morning interview show for five years straight, beating CBS's Face the Nation, ABC's This Week, Fox News Sunday, and CNN's Late Edition. It is the second-highest rated program airing on Sunday morning, behind CBS News Sunday Morning, which airs in the same time slot in most markets.

International broadcasts

In Australia, the Seven Network airs Meet the Press at 4:00am on Mondays, while also being networked on regional affiliates Seven Central, Southern Cross Television and WIN SA. It is not shown on Seven's other affiliates, Prime Television and Golden West Network due to their paid programming commitments. In Europe, CNBC airs the program every Sunday at 2100 GMT.

Listen to

• Meet the Press: Martin Luther King (April 17, 1960)

External links

• 60th anniversary background information