Willie Geist Wants New Bite of Live Events Revenue for ‘Today’
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Wille Geist hopes to turn his gift for gab into a present for NBC News. The longtime NBC News anchor, who has for the past nine years led the Sunday broadcast of “Today,” will in January hold forth at a ticketed event that aims to monetize in a different way the in-depth “Sunday Sit-Down” interviews he conducts every weekend.
Geist has interviewed 539 different celebrities and newsmakers during his tenure as Sunday host, and, on January 22, he will talk in front of a paying audience to comedian Nate Bargatze.
Viewers have seen Geist do one-on-ones with everyone from Billy Joel to Billy Crystal, but having a crowd “is a totally different thing,” he says, in an interview that put him, like his guests, on the receiving end of multiple questions. “You can’t help but interact with the crowd, try to draw a response from it, try to have fun with it.” If NBC News has its way, it will be able to draw something else from the exchanges: revenue.
The Bargatze interview will be held in front of an audience of approximately 500 people at New York’s City Winery on Wednesday, January 22.
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