NBC debuts ‘Stay Tuned Now with Gadi Schwartz’ featuring unique look

Streamer NBC News Now launched an extension of its digital news brand Stay Tuned with the debut of “Stay Tuned Now with Gadi Schwartz” on Monday, March 13, 2023, using an edgy look focused on the “where,” “what” and “why.”

The expansion represents the first full-length newscast for Stay Tuned, which has so far focused more on short-form video formats, originally debuting on Snapchat before also appearing on TikTok and Instagram.

“Stay Tuned Now” is the latest original newscast offered on NBC News Now, a free, ad-support streaming offering. NBC News Now also expanded “Hallie Jackson Now” to two hours, with Hallie Jackson anchoring from 5 to 7 p.m. eastern.

Schwartz takes over at 8 p.m. eastern.

“Stay Tuned Now” uses the standard NBC News Now insert graphics and trademark underscore accents, but also adds in its own take on fullscreens, wipes, transitions, video wall graphics and more centered around scan line elements, boxes and segments of outlines. 

The color palette is largely centered around a magenta, with white appearing frequently in the scan-line look and shades of violet and orange worked in, typically in the form of gradients.

Like many NBC News Now graphics, there are also numerous versions of microtext, including city and topic names and various iterations of the show and network name.

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On-screen teases and on-set graphics for stories typically include three tiers of text for the topic at hand, labeled “where,” “what” and “why” (three of the 5 Ws of reporting). 

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Tease graphics, which alternate from the left and right side of the screen, feature a prominent use of the scan-line element, a quasi-staggered stack of thin white lines that are suggestive of a side-to-side motion.

There were some occasions, when reviewed by NewscastStudio on select devices, these lines seemed to “vibrate” on screen in the way that a person wearing a thinly striped shirt might have a similar effect occur.

A similar design is also used for on-set video wall looks when Schwartz is introducing a particular story.

Scan lines are also used as a transitional element, with both horizontal and vertical animation used to wipe between segments or shots, including to breaks and rejoining the newscast.

“Stay Tuned Now” is produced from NBC News’ Los Angeles bureau, so background graphical elements throughout the show feature stylized L.A. skylines, including the open.

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The show uses a fast-paced, upbeat musical bed that’s similar to other music used on Now, with added sound effects such as blips blended in. 

The studio in Los Angeles also had some updates made, including a new floor covering simulating white marble, an upgraded seamless video wall with muted gold frame. 

These studio updates, incidentally, are likely why “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt hasn’t been anchoring from these parts of the bureau during his several recent visits to Los Angeles, including for the March 13 edition. 

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Previously, “Nightly” had used the old video wall and corner alcove of LED “windows” to recreate some of the feel it has in Studio 1A , but his most recent broadcasts have been done from the standard anchor desk in front of the glass wall overlooking the newsroom and done without video walls.

The updated look does, however, have similarities to the more “art deco” look that the network brought to Studio 1A in 2021. 

At least some of the studio updates could fit in with the NYC look that is used for “Today” and “Nightly” as well as in MSNBC’s Studio 3A, so the space could start appearing on all of these outlets as well.

For “Stay Tuned,” Schwartz spends most of his time standing. He could be blocked standing on either side of the upgraded video wall.

One shot featured an off-white wall with narrow splash of violet and a small backlit panel in pink with a video screen showing a loop of the words “Stay Tuned Now” in large type against violet, orange and pink.

When placed on the other side of the video wall, Schwartz stands in front of a wall splashed with light violet shades on the white walls, while a vertical backlit panel of horizontal slats is pink.

For a headlines segment mid-broadcast, the broadcast moved over the L-shaped alcove with vertically-mounted panels configured to appear as windows.

Schwartz stood in front of the space’s small anchor desk, which was parked roughly in the middle of the space.

The panels behind him, meanwhile, showcased a blend of horizontal lines and rectangular gradients with. microtext.

The video panel on the front of the desk behind Schwartz showed a graphic reading “Around the World, Headlines: What’s New” while a small black rectangle on one of the wall panels also showed the word “headlines.”

This same area was also used for a one-on-one interview about the Oscars, but with Schwartz and his guest at the anchor desk. 

Behind them, the vertical panels were filled with a stylized tinted view of Los Angeles and the surrounding mountains, with the scan lines and show name blended into the sky, which was colored pink, red and yellow.

The interpretation of the L.A. skyline uses a variety of colors, many of them more in the teal, green and dark blue part of the spectrum, which makes it stand out bolding against the other colors. It also has the advantage of clear illustrating the city but without trying to suggest it’s a real view of it.

The last segment of the show had Schwartz against a dark wood toned wall with a single video panel in the middle of a backlit niche and flanked by two off-white towers with three video panels in each.

All of them showcased “Stay Tuned” branded imagery. 

For the first broadcast, Schwartz was joined on set by his family.