A drone, a jib and even a food truck: Lester Holt’s ‘Across America’ goes bigger with production values

Kicking off another “Across America” tour, “NBC Nightly News” upped its production values for the weeklong journey across the U.S. a bit, with a new logo, extended open and fancy camera moves.

The open started with the broadcast’s normal Rockefeller Center animation, while the show’s normal announcer can be heard saying “This is ‘NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt’: Across America. Reporting live from Houston.”

After the extended open, a drone shot overlooking Buffalo Bayou with Holt and his crew, including a jib, visible in the lower right.

Holt opened the newscast walking along the grassy parkland before beginning coverage of Hurricane Michael. Holt used a similar approach when covering Hurricane Florence in North Carolina.

Networks travel to N.C. for Hurricane Florence coverage