Former News 2 morning show cohosts Neil Orne and Nikki Burdine will livestream a morning news/interview show three times a week starting Wednesday, Aug. 12, the two told The Tennessean.
Orne and Burdine appeared nearly giddy at times as they described reuniting for live, 60-minute shows on YouTube for which the two will handle nearly everything, from content to advertising to marketing, with no corporate owners looking over their shoulders.
"We have freedom," Burdine said. "We have freedom for creativity. We have freedom for change, a freedom to pivot any way we see fit."
"And we have the freedom to fail," Orne added. "But I don't anticipate it failing."
The two co-hosted News 2's "Good Morning Nashville" for seven years until Orne, 60, left when
his contract expired in November 2024 after 29 years at WKRN.
Three months later, News 2 fired Burdine, 43, over what station managers said was an ethics violation when she started plugging a perfume brand on her personal Instagram account after getting free product from that company.
The two are following a growing trend among legacy TV and print news personalities who are finding ways outside corporate-owned outlets to continue their careers.
After 33 years as a main anchor at WSMV4, Demetria Kalodimos and two others relaunched the Nashville Banner as a nonprofit online news outlet in 2024.
Outside Nashville, veteran CNN anchor Don Lemon launched his own independent show on YouTube and X in 2024. Longtime New York Times NBA reporter Marc Stein launched his own sports newsletter on online platform Substack in 2021. Former CNN White House correspondent Jessica Yellin launched her own newsletter, News Not Noise, in 2018.
Orne and Burdine are launching their new "Not the News" venture with some momentum. The two said they have secured more than $100,000 in sponsorship money and a partnership agreement with two-year-old events/coworking space Music City Work Club in West Nashville.
The livestreaming studio there has state-of-the-art video cameras, microphones and video monitors that allow guests to join the show remotely. The venue has space to allow the show to grow to include an audience, something Orne said he'd like to pursue.
Orne said he is more excited, and anxious, about launching this new show than he has ever been in his 36-year broadcasting career.
"I have more fire about this than I’ve ever had," he said.
The show, "Not the News," the same name the duo used for a weekly interview podcast they did for a while last year, will be live from 6:15 to 7:15 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The first five to 10 minutes will be some banter and a rundown of local news headlines. The rest of the show will go deeper into timely topics, maybe like local data center controversies, skyrocketing property taxes or the concert or event of the week, the two said. They hope to get the newsmakers involved those topics on as guests, though the first two shows, Aug. 12 and 14, likely will be just Orne and Burdine.
The two also said they will monitor viewers' comments on YouTube and social media as the shows happen to incorporate audience reactions.
"The best part is what people say online about a news story," Burdine said. "We’re going to do that in real time."
Orne and Burdine also will offer their own reactions now and then to headlines and other topics they're discussing, something Orne said their old News 2 viewers enjoyed.
Doing their own show, the two said, should allow for looser, more relaxed vibes than they could generate on their heavily formatted News 2 morning show, which frequently was analyzed by local and corporate supervisors.
With steady declines nationwide in legacy news media audiences, Orne and Burdine said they saw News 2 workloads increasing, salaries declining and more and more outside corporate interference in daily newscasts.
"You only go so long not being heard before you shut down," Orne said.
"I think we were both burned out," Burdine said.
With their new venture, the two said they hope to create family-friendly shows that steer away from what they say is local TV newscasts' focus on sensationalism and fear.
Asked to comment on Burdine's and Orne's reflections on News 2 operations, WKRN vice president and general manager Mike Spruill emailed: "It’s against Nexstar corporate policy to comment on personnel issues."
Burdine and Orne concede that producing, booking, hosting and selling live podcasts will be a heavy lift.
"It's going to be a lot of work," Burdine said, "but it's work for us. We’re not working for somebody else."
And Orne and Burdine appear to be ready to have fun and tease each other along the way, during and outside of the livestreaming.
In the interview for this story, Burdine mentioned that her husband, Justin, has been steadily and enthusiastically encouraging her and Orne to launch the new show.
Orne's reaction: "Justin confided in me the other day — he just wants her out of the house."
"Not true!" Burdine fired back.
Reach Brad Schmitt at brad@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Can WKRN stars Neil Orne, Nikki Burdine shine without News 2? ❘ Exclusive
