Face the Nation

Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer
Face the Nation Title Card as of 2011
Genre	Public affairs/political talk
Created by	Frank Stanton
Presented by	Bill Shadel (1954–1955) Stuart Novins (1955–1960) Howard K. Smith (1960–1961) Paul Niven (1961–1965) Martin Agronsky (1965–1969) George Herman (1969–1983) Lesley Stahl (1983–1991) Bob Schieffer (1991–present)
Narrated by	John Hartge
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	60
Production
Executive producer(s)	Mary Hager
Producer(s)	Rob Hendin (senior producer)
Location(s)	Washington, D.C.
Camera setup	Videotape, Multi-camera
Running time	30 minutes (1954–2012) 60 minutes (2012–present)
Production company(s)	CBS News Productions
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
Original run	November 7, 1954 – present
External links
Website

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer is an American Sunday morning political interview show, which premiered on the CBS television network. It is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television, having debuted in 1954.

Overview

Face the Nation premiered on November 7, 1954, and was originally broadcast on Sunday afternoons at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The program's original host was Tedd Koop, then the Washington D.C. bureau chief for CBS News. On that first program, his guest was Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy.^[1]

Each Sunday, the program's moderator interviews newsmakers on the latest issues and delivers a short topical commentary at the end of the broadcast. The program generally broadcasts from Washington, D.C. Guests include government leaders, politicians, and international figures in the news. CBS News correspondents and other contributors often engage the guests in a roundtable discussion focusing on current topics. The program is usually broadcast at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time, immediately following CBS News Sunday Morning, although most CBS affiliates in the Pacific Time Zone air it at 8:30 a.m. local time. Local affiliates are free to air the show at the time of their choosing, usually before noon local time. The show is also broadcast on a delay on a handful of radio affiliates through the CBS Radio Network.

Face the Nation became the last Sunday morning talk show to begin broadcasting in high definition in July 2011 (this left only CBS's overnight newscast Up to the Minute as the only American news program on the major broadcast networks and cable news channels that continued to broadcast in standard definition; that program began airing in HD in late November 2012).

At 30 minutes (approximately 21½ without commercials), for much of its history, Face the Nation was the shortest of the Sunday talk shows and the only half-hour Sunday morning talk show on the four major broadcast networks. It expanded to 60 minutes for a preliminary period of twenty weeks in April 2012, and was permanently extended to that time length on July 29, 2012, although some local CBS affiliates still choose to air only the first 30 minutes of the program.^[2][3] There is a deliberate break between the first and second half of the program, to allow local affiliates to begin airing another program if they wish to do so.

Approximately 64% of CBS affiliates air the second half-hour contiguously with the first half-hour, while the others either do not air the second half-hour at all or air that half-hour on a tape delayed basis, because of station commitments to other local or syndicated programming such as religious programs, the local affiliate's own public affairs programming, local pre-game programming leading into CBS's The NFL Today, college football coaches shows recapping game action from the day before, or already sold infomercials. Most radio stations only air the first half-hour.^[4][5] Other stations choose to air the second half-hour after primetime following their late local newscasts or in a later timeslot as part of their late night schedule.^[6]

See also

• List of longest-running United States television series

References

External links

• Face The Nation at CBSNews.com
• Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer at the Internet Movie Database
• Face The Nation with Bob Schieffer at TV.com
• Face the Nation on Google+
• Face the Nation on Facebook
• @FaceTheNation on Twitter