Rock Center With Brian Williams launches in just a few days and details of the debut episode have been revealed.
For the newsmagazine’s premiere on Oct. 31 at 10 p.m., Brian Williams will be joined by correspondents Harry Smith, Kate Snow and Richard Engel.
For their first stories, Snow will investigate women who are shelling out money to come from China to America in order to give birth and go home with a U.S. citizenship. Meanwhile, Engel will give a report on anti-government activists in Syria. Additionally, Smith visits the one place in the U.S. where it has a negative unemployment rate.
Earlier this week, NBC News president Steve Capus admitted that Rock Center — which will be a multi-topic hour — will not be a “smash hit right out of the starting block.” He said “it’s going to be the opposite. We’re not doing this as a ratings play. We’re not kidding ourselves, we know it’s going to take some time to get established.” Rock Center replaced The Playboy Club, which had been struggling in the ratings and was canned after three episodes.
But Williams said Rock Center will be deeply rooted in driving the hard news angle. “We have a different charge,” he explained. “That’s never been part of our charge. It’s not why we were commissioned. Our charge was to put together the best broadcast of its type that we could, get on the air and stay there.”
David Corvo serves as the show’s senior executive producer, while Rome Hartman is executive producer. Williams anchors the weekly primetime program and serves as managing editor.
