NBC Nightly News’ Brian Williams will be making the trip to Englewood Cliffs, NJ tonight, to anchor the program from CNBC’s HQ. In what is turning into a historic day on Wall Street, the move signals NBC’s reliance on its financial cable network.
“We are the business and economics division of the entire network,” CNBC SVP Jonathan Wald tells TVNewser. “It makes sense we provide reporting and analysis.”
The network’s impact was evident this morning, as Erin Burnett provided the analysis during the NBC special report following President Bush’s statement.
CNBC was live for three hours last night, a decision that Wald said was determined as details emerged. “It wasn’t so much ‘how long do we go,’ but ‘why would we stop'” he said.
Wald also credits the team in place as a reason the network could go live on the fly. “These guys are top notch, and they’re reporting while they’re on the air and they’re the ones breaking the story,” said Wald, who also credited the behind-the-scenes crew. “It required everybody to pitch in.”
Wald described the political impact of CNBC. “At times, when it comes to politics we’re like the little network that could,” and says CNBC has “become a much, much bigger deal,” in this election.
Tonight, CNBC’s schedule is shuffled, as it airs a Maria Bartiromo/Carl Quintanilla anchored special, “Wall Street Crisis: Is Your Money Safe?” from 7-9pmET tonight. CNBC then airs a CNBC Asia feed from 9-11pmET. Squawk Box begins an hour earlier, at 5amET tomorrow.
Click continued to see Burnett’s appearance on another NBC property, the Today show, this morning…