Telemundo 47’s new home debuts — but on MSNBC

Ahead of becoming the new home of New York City’s Telemundo affiliate, the second half of the recently split Studio 3B popped up early on MSNBC.

WNBC moves into its half of the newly-split Studio 3B

The noon eastern hour of “Chris Jansing Reports” on Jan. 8, 2024, was branded as “How to Win 2024” and anchored by Katy Tur while using the network’s Decision 2024 look and music.

NewscastStudio confirmed that Tur anchored from Studio 3B West, which will become the home of NBCUniversal-owned WNJU later in 2024. WNBC moved into the east half of the space in November 2023.

For the special, which came at the 7-day mark before the Iowa Caucuses, MSNBC brought in the wide, curved desk outfitted with stars along the bottom front that it frequently uses for political and election coverage.

The Telemundo set did not have any visible Telemundo branding on it — unlike the NBC peacock outlines installed on the backlit walls next door, though it’s also possible they were either removed or not installed yet. 

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Much of the rest of the studio also appeared, including a plentiful amount of seamless video walls and backlit panels as well as circular LED columns — something that isn’t found on the WNBC side. 

MSNBC took advantage of all those LED pixels to showcase familiar imagery — including a simulated view of Rockefeller Center’s facade as the primary background behind Tur.

Also appearing during the space was another video wall camera right and a trio of tracking video panels on the opposite side. Both of these elements were used for remote interviews.

A separate area featuring a taller LED video array next to two video walls meeting at a 90-degree angle was also shown.

MSNBC’s design team used a bit of a different approach on the circular LED columns, borrowing the star outline from the Decision 2024 look but switching to deeper blue and red along with vertical colored accents.

The studio floor was also decked out with a stars and stripes themed decal. 

As a testament to the space’s flexibility, MSNBC ended up having Tur stay put on the same set — rather than running down the hall — to anchor her normal hour of “Katy Tur Reports” immediately following the special and fed the “MSNBC Reports” virtual set extensions to the video walls.

NBC first announced plans to split 3B, which had been one of the larger sized spaces on the third floor, back in 2022. It will eventually move WNJU from New Jersey after it completes building a new shared newsroom for WNJU and WNBC.

The various studios inside the complex, along with the control rooms, are all interconnected and hot swappable, allowing shows to move between studios or control rooms quickly. This allows flexible in production and adds redundancy.

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