Wille Geist hopes to turn his gift for gab into a present for NBC News.
The longtime NBC News anchor, who has for the past nine years led the Sunday broadcast of “Today,” will in January hold forth at a ticketed event that aims to monetize in a different way the in-depth “Sunday Sit-Down” interviews he conducts every weekend. Geist has interviewed 539 different celebrities and newsmakers during his tenure as Sunday host, and, on January 22, he will talk in front of a paying audience to comedian Nate Bargatze.
Viewers have seen Geist do one-on-ones with everyone from Billy Joel to Billy Crystal, but having a crowd “is a totally different thing,” he says, in an interview that put him, like his guests, on the receiving end of multiple questions. “You can’t help but interact with the crowd, try to draw a response from it, try to have fun with it.”
If NBC News has its way, it will be able to draw something else from the exchanges: revenue.
The Bargatze interview will be held in front of an audience of approximately 500 people at New York’s City Winery on Wednesday, January 22. The audience will get to take part in a Q&A session following the exchange, which will be edited for a segment on the February 2 broadcast of “Sunday Today.” Tickets will start at $99, and 150 of them will be made available as part of a VIP package, which includes an opportunity to meet with the duo following their discussion.
“The audience gets an experience where you can interact with the talent and meet them, if you so choose,” says Libby Leist, the NBC News executive vice president who oversees all aspects of “Today.” “I am hopeful there will be more to come.” Geist says he could envision doing an interview with a live audience each quarter, and see where demand goes.
Behind the scenes, a team at “Today” has for months been studying prospects for live events tied to the A.M. franchise and its many anchors, says Leist. There have been a few in the recent past, including one with Hoda Kotb focused on wellness. Such concepts have a “celebrity factor” that can draw a crowd, but “you’re able do many things at once — entertain an audience, record a segment for a show, put a podcast together.”
There is a broader push at NBCUniversal to try such stuff, adding “experiential” products to the TV shows for which the company is best known. Bravo has built a large business out of a “BravoCon” that gathers fans as well as the network’s popular reality stars. MSNBC earlier this year tested a day-long summit that put its anchors and correspondents in front of a paying crowd of 4000. Others have tried their hand at mixing it up in front of alive crowd, with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager bringing an in-studio audience to their hour of “Today” on occasion, and MSNBC’s Chris Hayes doing Friday shows in front of a studio audience for a period of time
In a different era, a TV segment started and stopped on the traditional linear screen. Now the content must appeal to assorted pockets of audience across many different venues.
In the current moment, filled with concerns about typical TV viewers going to other forms of video to get their info fix and the effects such dynamics have on media economics, no one can afford to let content slip away. “Today” segments are collected and redistributed on the show’s bespoke streaming outlet. Uncut interviews are made into podcasts.
So are Geist’s. The anchor usually talks to his subjects for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then edits the conversation into a segment that lasts 7 and a half to 8 minutes. Separate podcasts allow viewers to hear the whole conversation.
“Sunday Today” vies for attention with CBS’ popular “Sunday Morning,” a show Geist knows very well. His father, the veteran journalist Bill Geist, appeared on the program from 1987 to 2018. That program, he says, “is a juggernaut,” but “we are just producing a show with our small team, and it’s getting recognition and viewers.”
He thinks Bargatze will be the perfect guest to help experiment with the dynamic of a live crowd. “People will be excited to find out how he works around the laughs,” he says, and the comedian, still emerging on the national scene, has a life story with which many people are still not familiar .”It’s an honor to be a guest for Willie’s live event,” Bargatze said in a statement. “I am a fan of him, and people will finally get to see the difference between going to Vanderbilt and just being a Vanderbilt fan.”
Geist is confident people will want to take part. Viewers of “Sunday Today “already participate in a segment that has them showing off coffee mugs associated with the show. And many of them are very familiar with the “Sit Down” interview. “This has become a signature piece. It’s what our show is known for,” says Geist. People often come up to him and ask who his next guest might be. “It’s shorthand now. Who do you have this week? Who do you got?” he says. “I know what that means.”
