In its second day in its new graphics package, “NBC Nightly News” mostly stayed the course with the new look for its June 20, 2023 broadcast.
One significant tweak, however, was that the “breaking news” video wall graphic was displayed behind the anchor Lester Holt the top of the news feed is now a much more vibrant red.
Before, the red seemed muted, almost to the point of being considered maroon.
What the red graphic on the “breaking news” video wall looked like on June 19, 2022.
The broadcast also expanded the boxed “breaking news” icon that appears briefly on the video wall before transitioning to full wall footage, to the point where it almost feels comically oversized.
The seemingly increasing emphasis on breaking news branding, both through bold red and larger text, greatly reinforces the question of the broadcasting industry’s tendency to use this label.
“Nightly” and NBC are not alone in this trend: both ABC and CBS, as well as other networks around the world, have ventured down this path (“ABC World News Tonight” notably relies on this tag and peppers its scripts with lines such as “new developments” and “as we go on the air,” a trend that appears to have crept into both NBC and ABC broadcasts).
The potential overuse of the breaking news tag now leads to the former CEO of CNN chris light a issue an edict the reduction of the use of the network of the term and its sting of breaking news.
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Back on “Nightly,” there also appeared to be a strange shadow effect added to the bottom of both the show’s full logo and the breaking news graphic just above the empty anchor desk that he stood behind Holt every evening.
This roughly matches the location of a shadow that was added behind the title text that floated above the full video wall images that appeared as Holt read his introduction. This approach, which is common in broadcast design, was probably taken to help improve the readability of text placed over photographs.
It’s also possible that the shadow was an attempt to reduce the reflection of the “breaking news” text on the glass surface of the anchor desk because it appears to line up almost exactly with the screen portion where the two elements meet. The reflection did seem more muted on June 20 than on debut day.
Assuming the shadow was not done by mistake, this scenario could be supported by the fact that the shadow was on top of the text and not behind it (the “breaking news” text in the graphic it doesn’t need any shadow behind it to do so). it’s more readable since it already has a solid white background by design).
While new visuals are often tested extensively before being released to the public, with tweaks made throughout the process to make adjustments to how they appear on set video walls and panels or the look full screen, it’s no wonder there are additional tweaks. which will be done after the debut.
This could be in response to viewer feedback or simply based on decisions made by producers or executives after viewing the debut broadcast, which is often heavily scrutinized internally through meetings and post-mortem reviews.
When previous “Nightly” video wall graphics were updated in 2021, the blue background behind Holt initially had brown gold outlines of the show’s logo, but this was removed on Day 2.
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