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NBC News hopes Christine Romans’ new program, “Current,” will add voltage to its streaming efforts.
The show will debut August 3 on the live-streaming outlet NBC News Now, and run from 10 a.m. to noon eastern each day.
NBC News aims to harness Romans’ long experience covering financial markets, and some segments on the new program will focus on finance, business, technology, and A.I. . Kerrie Wudyka will serve as executive producer of the new program.
“This is a moment to tell stories only the way that NBC News can, with our vast resources and our bureaus around the world,” Romans said, in a statement. “We’ll explain what’s happening, why it matters, and how decisions made in the halls of power around the world and on Wall Street affect people at the kitchen table. That will be the framing for everything we do.”
The addition of Romans’ program will give NBC News Now 14 hours of live news programming each day.
Romans,who joined NBC News in 2023after two decades at CNN, was elevated to chief business correspondentat the NBCUniversal-backed news outlet in April.
Every mainstream TV outlet in the U.S. has taken its own approach to streaming news. Fox News operates a subscription-based news outlet, Fox Nation, and CNN is trying to expand the launch of its subscription outlet. MS NOW has plans to launch a new subscription service that will focus on the community of viewers who tune in to the outlet regularly. NBC News executives have touted viewership at NBC News Now, noting that its first quarter “was our most-watched in a year,” and pointing out that during moments of breaking news, “our ratings often outperform more established cable news channels.”
Before joining NBC News, Romans established deep roots at CNN, which she joined in 1999 after stints at newspapers and Reuters Television. She had been around CNN long enough to have worked as a correspondent on Lou Dobbs’ evening business-news program and to have appeared on the now defunct CNNfN, a business-news cable network meant to help the former Time Warner compete with CNBC. She also anchored “Early Start,” an early-morning program.
“Current” will debut a new franchise, “50 States in 50 Days,” and will team with NBC affiliates to spotlight local solutions to national challenges. Upcoming stories will include features on Cleveland’s foster care system, data centers in Iowa, a Washington community kitchen, the Connecticut housing market and more.
