Sunday Today with Willie Geist marks one year on the air tomorrow.
“A year ago, Andy Lack and Noah Oppenheim gave me a precious hour of network time and said ‘Go do your thing,'” Geist tells TVNewser. “That’s a rare opportunity, and with a smart, creative staff and a fantasy guest list of stars who for some reason keep saying ‘Yes’, we’ve run with it.”
The show averages about 3 million viewers each week, about half that of venerable CBS Sunday Morning, which is the most-watched morning show on TV. Geist, along with ep Matt Carluccio, say they are proud to have “created a place on Sunday mornings where it somehow works to have Ice Cube as a guest one week and George W. Bush another.”
In the show’s first year, Geist has had in-depth interviews with Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky, Lyft president and co-founder John Zimmer, and GoPro CEO Nick Woodman. His celebrity guests have ranged from Justin Timberlake to Dolly Parton, and from Jim Parsons to Jeffrey Tambour.
Geist also continues his role on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and contributes to the weekday Today show.