‘Face the Nation’ tweaks open, teases again

CBS’s “Face the Nation” tweaked its tease headlines and open once again Sunday, Jan. 30, 2022, completing an evolution of changes that started back in October 2021.

The Jan. 30 edition of the Sunday morning political affairs show featured anchor and moderator Margaret Brennan standing on camera for the entire tease headlines segment, with topical video showing up on the video wall behind her as she previewed each story or segment. 

The imagery featured red toned accents above and below, while a variety of animation effects were used on the graphics.

The show then cut to its open.

The latest version of the open debuted last week, Jan. 23, 2022, but is based on overall redesign that first started airing on Halloween 2021.

The basis of both opens is the network’s overall “deconstructed eye” branding package that started appearing in 2020 and makes heavy use of subtle 3D CBS eye elements, rings and circles as well as using the various segments of the eye icon to frame imagery of Brennan.

Jan. 23 saw some tweaks to the very beginning of the open, replacing a smaller version of the CBS News logo with an oversized “CBS” lettering and a larger version of the news division logotype, a look that’s sometimes used on network level IDs and vanity cards.

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The look switched to a mostly white and light gray background, but red and blue accents in the form of animated lines and other elements. 

The final scene in the open features the show’s existing logo set in its familiar condensed typeface, along with Brennan’s name written as a “signature,” but the cursive writing has been reduced a bit in size from the previous version of the open.

In addition, the background of this graphic has been simplified by removing some lines and textural elements, but adds the CBS News logotype atop the red box that contains the horizontal lockup of the show logo.

The new iteration of the open has one awkward element — it places the “S” in the CBS News logotype partially over a thick red curved lines, making it a bit hard to read during much of the time it’s on screen.

From October to January, the open also added the CBS eye to the left of the “Face the Nation” lettering, which made its entrance in the center of the box before “sliding” over the left.

However, Jan. 23’s updated eliminated this element, likely since the eye is present in the CBS News logo above. 

Jan. 23’s show used the show’s old fullscreen red sidebar and logo overlay for the teases, with Brennan only providing a voiceover for most of them, so Jan. 30’s edition was the first to showcase the latest open and tease format.

The show continues to use the same lower third insert graphics as it did previously.

While the show appears to have moved significantly away from the boxy “frame” and deep red background look that it once used in the open it debuted along with the move to the new set in December 2019, the remainder of the on set video wall graphics still use the virtual set extension look the show started using that same day that combines views of Washington landmarks set amid 3D structural and branding elements.

“Face the Nation” shares a studio and set with “CBS Evening News” and uses the virtual set extensions to give the space a significantly different look on Sundays.

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