NewsNation adding ‘Early Morning’ news

Nexstar’s NewsNation is expanding its news offerings again with the addition of “Early Morning.”

Anchored by former KPNX 12News anchor Mitch Carr, the newscast is set to launch June 27, 2022, at 6 a.m. eastern and run for an hour before “Morning in America,” the network’s first entry into morning news that debuted in September 2021.

The newscast will be what Nexstar calls a “fast-paced and informative news hour.”

Former Black News Channel and MSNBC producer James Holm will executive produce.

Carr is also slated to start co-anchoring “Morning in America” from 7 to 10 a.m. eastern following “Early” alongside current co-anchor Adrienne Bankert. Both newscasts will originate from NewsNation headquarters in Chicago, which is co-located alongside WGN, the independent station Nexstar owns there.

Carr also posted a photo of himself on the second-floor set open to the network’s newsroom that “Morning in America” also uses, suggesting the show may originate from the same space, which would make sense so that it can smoothly transition between shows without a gap to allow Carr to run upstairs from the primary NewsNation studio.

Behind him is an a video wall graphic that showcases his show title using the same stylized “O” as “Morning in America” does, along with similar circular graphics. Instead of the more pastel gradients used for “Morning in America,” however, these graphics use a deeper color palette. It’s not immediately clear if this is the final look for the show.

“Early Morning” will bring NewsNation’s schedule up to 86 hours of weekly live national news, analysis and talk programming. The rest of the schedule is filled with repeats of dramas, religious programming and infomercials.

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“Early” will replace a repeat of “Elementary,” Sherlock Holmes-inspired series that originally aired on CBS.

The new hour will go up against local news on Nexstar stations in much of the eastern and central time zones, though the network’s notoriously low ratings are unlikely to have a significant immediate impact on these broadcasts. “Morning in America,” meanwhile, airs opposite at least some portion of the network morning shows on many of the company’s stations in eastern, central and mountain time zones.

NewsNation continues expanding its staff of experienced, proven journalists, recently adding former Fox elections director and Jan. 6 insurrection hearing witness Chris Stirewalt as political editor, former Black News Channel correspondent Dray Clark as a New York City-based correspondent, and former WFOR reporter Brooke Shafer, a Miami-based correspondent. Later this month, former KGO San Fransisco anchor Natasha Zouves will join the network as weekend anchor and correspondent.