Big reveal for a new 'Meet the Press'

MICHAEL E. ROSS | 05.03.2010

"In television, this is what we do: We evolve," said David Gregory, the moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” on Sunday, by way of his big reveal of his program's extreme makeover.

Longtime viewers of MTP got a sleek, burnished eyeful over the weekend when they tuned in to watch the long-running Sunday morning political news show, and witness a cosmetic change that visually reflects the shift in the program’s leadership, and maybe even a bid for a new audience.

For years now, the MTP set has underwhelmed, with the blue, gold & white color scheme of the show’s logo displayed on any number of monitors behind the guests, who sat at a small table at the center of the seat, huddled like participants in a focus group. Regardless of the gravity of whoever appeared was on the show, the MTP visuals always looked a little airless and confined, befitting a show shot in a studio in Washington.

What a difference 139 days make. The show’s new makeover, formally unveiled on Sunday and the first since March 1996, reveals a set that largely does away with visible monitors, trading that quasi-high-tech look for a more studied, bookish ambience. The sleek new set, seemingly big enough for a touch football game, is lined with crowded bookshelves meant to convey a more studious, cerebral tone. The new digs were accompanied by cleaner on-screen graphics and a new logo (balanced on the Capitol dome in MTP's new open).

Conspicuous in a preview last week, perched in a high place on one of those bookshelves, is a picture of Tim Russert, the late veteran journalist, longtime moderator of MTP and the one generally given credit for bringing the program — at 62 years old and counting the longest-running program in television history — back from a status as a moribund also-ran on the Sunday morning talk shows.

The moment of the moment all caught up to David Gregory, Russert’s eventual replacement as MTP moderator and his friend, when he choked up at a reception after Sunday’s show, TVNewser reported.

“This is a big moment for me, because it's really the next step for me and for the program," Gregory said while fighting back tears. "It has not been an easy transition, but I've always felt like I'm never alone in that.”

Gregory thanked the members of his academy: executive producer Betsy Fischer, NBC News President Steve Capus, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, and NBC News Washington Bureau Chief Mark Whittaker.

Carpenters, designers and electricians were not included.

The blognoscenti has had mixed emotions.

Nusayler at HuffPost: What a perfect, eloquent summary of how pathetic Gregory is. The first time he shows any genuine emotion, any passion, it's over what? Some cheesy TV set you could get at Ikea for under a grand. Too rich.

PORK RIND (HuffPost): Give the guy a break. He is trying his best despite what clearly must be a terrible pressure. Not even Tim Russert was born a legend -- it took a lifetime of evolution. I actually find Gregory preferable to the alternatives (Mini Anderson Cooper, George Stepinapoopalos and others). Not much preferable, but still...

Skeptical Cicada (HuffPost): He should be choked up for having destroyed MTP. Hint: The problem isn't the set, David.

We’ll see how this translates into viewers — and, for that matter, whether the other jabber-on-Sunday specialists will follow suit. But if nothing else, this brand new mise-en-scène for the medium’s longest-distance runner means this is Gregory’s MTP. The last, most visible manifestations of the Russert-era MTP are gone now; it’s on Gregory to clearly put his stamp on the program, to make it a Sunday-morning destination on the basis of more than reflex and habit. To make it his own.

The big guy in the picture on the shelf will be watching.

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Michael E. Ross is the editor of Culcha.

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