On Monday night, for the first time in two decades, NBC launched a primetime news magazine show: Rock Center with Brian Williams. Filling the slot last occupied by the ill-fated Playboy Club, Rock Center, hosted by the famously witty NBC Nightly News anchor, featured news segments by correspondents Kate Snow and Richard Engel, and a talk show-like interview with Jon Stewart. The news magazine genre once dominated network TV, as the shows cost relatively little to produce, turning even middling ratings success into major profits. But increasingly, networks eschewed news shows in favor of reality TV series, which are equally cheap to make but far bigger ratings draws. Does Rock Center make a case for a news magazine renaissance?
Yes. It should be the model for all news programs: "Why isn't the evening news more like this?" says James Poniewozik at TIME. Rock Center mercifully skimped on the type of melodrama and headline chasing that typically defines news shows. Instead, it offered "a few brightly produced and quasi topical features," like a reporter's journey into Syria and a deeper look at North Dakota's oil boom. Our around-the-clock news cycles typically leave evening news telecasts to rehash news you heard about hours — or even days — ago. But there's really no need for network news shows to focus on those headlines, and Rock Center knows it.
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