'Meet the Press' turns 70 as TV's longest-running show

On November 6, 1947, NBC's "Meet the Press" debuted. It is the longest running TV show in U.S.history. From the article:

"'Meet the Press' turns 70 as TV's longest-running show
Updated Jan 11, 2019;
Posted Nov 04, 2017

CLEVELAND, Ohio - NBC's "Meet the Press" premiered on Nov. 6, 1947. CBS' "60 Minutes," which started ticking in 1968, and ABC's "General Hospital," which began operating in 1963, are relative youngsters compared with the 70-year-old Sunday morning news-interview program.

Indeed, "Meet the Press," which already had been running two years on radio, debuted at a time when CBS and ABC had no regular prime-time programming. NBC had just a few scattered shows, including "Kraft Television Theatre" and "Gillette Cavalcade of Stars."

So, 70 years later, meet the longest-running show in television history.

"The longevity of the show always added pressure," said the show's 12th and current moderator, Chuck Todd, during a telephone interview. "Whenever I'm introduced as the moderator of the longest-running television show in history, all of a sudden, it's a reminder to me that I better not be the last moderator. I better not be the guy who somehow gets 'Meet the Press' canceled.' "

Not much danger of that -- at least, not at the moment. It is regularly claiming the top spot among Sunday morning's public affairs news shows.

"I think that the reason it has survived is because the idea of using Sunday as a day of reflection is sort of ingrained in the news business, too," Todd said. "We continue to believe that Sunday mornings are when we're going to sit down and try to figure out what the heck's going on in the country."

"Meet the Press" co-creator Martha Rountree was the show's first moderator, overseeing the discussions from 1947 to 1953. She was succeeded by such long-serving moderators as Ned Brooks (1953-65), who was succeeded by Lawrence Spivak (1966-75).

"The first moderator I remember was Bill Monroe," Todd said. "My father was a big political junkie, so I remember watching it with him. When I first chose to watch, in late high school and early college, it was Garrick Utley."

Monroe was the moderator from 1975 until 1984. He was followed by Roger Mudd and Marvin Kalb (1984-85), Kalb (1985-87), Chris Wallace (1987-88), Utley (1989-91), Tim Russert (1991-2008), Tom Brokaw (2008), David Gregory (2008-14) and Todd, who took over in 2014.

While Monroe is the first moderator Todd remembers, Russert is the one that had the greatest influence on him. Russert, who died of coronary thrombosis at 58 in June 2008, was a graduate of John Carroll University (class of '72) and Cleveland State University's Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.

"I love John Carroll football because of Tim," Todd said. "I am well aware of that connection. There's always a Tim Russert Fellow here from John Carroll University, and I hope there always will be."

Russert also was a mentor to Todd, recruiting him to NBC News in 2007.

"Tim was the most influential moderator on the show, on the genre and for me," Todd said. "Easily, it was Tim. He and David Brinkley had the greatest influence on the genre. Brinkley got the form to an hour. Tim elevated and celebrated the show internally. He made everyone internally understand and appreciate the importance of the show."

Russert revitalized "Meet the Press" in both the national discussion and the network's consciousness.

"Every moderator leaves an imprint," Todd said. "Tim has two giant imprints. He took 'Meet the Press' to an hour. And he made the round table a vital and regular part of the show. Tim also made it seem less like an insider show. He realized it was at its best when explaining Washington to America but also bringing America to Washington."

What is Todd's imprint?

"I'd like to think I'm expanding the idea of what 'Meet the Press' is," he said. "It's about keeping 'Meet the Press' urgent and relevant in this fractured media environment, while at the same time not losing the overall mission, which is explaining what happened and why it matters."

To that end, "Meet the Press," which airs at 10 a.m. Sundays on WKYC Channel 3, has expanded with a daily cable program, "MTP Daily," on MSNBC, podcasts and a documentary film festival.

"I think there are two weights on me," Todd said. "One is the longevity. The other is keeping up with the evolution that Tim created on the show. It became the idea of, 'Boy, you gotta watch it. You can't miss it.' "

That's not always easy, especially with the polarization of political discussion and the fractionalization of the media.

"It's a very different landscape when you have Conan O'Brien booking political guests, when you have politicians who want celebrity contacts," Todd said. "But, in an odd way, the Sunday morning shows have benefited most from this saturation. Yes, we're No. 1 and doing great, but the fact is that all of my colleagues are doing great, too.

"The fractionalization of the media and the culture helped us more than anyone envisioned. The more noise that there is, the more people seek out explanations. And that's still what Sunday does best.""