Saturday ‘Today’ originates from D.C. to avoid having anchors travel to NYC

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

NBC News‘ Saturday, March 14, 2020 edition of “Today” originated from the network’s Washington, D.C. bureau in order to cut down on travel amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Two of the show’s Saturday hosts, Peter Alexander and Kristen Welker, are based in Washington as part of their roles covering the White House for the network.

Saturday “Today” normally originates from Studio 1A in Rockefeller Plaza, with Welker and Alexander traveling to NYC each weekend for the show.

The third named host, meteorologist Dylan Dreyer, is out after giving birth to her second child in January 2020.

For the March 14 show, Alexander and Walker used the set originally designed for “Meet the Press” but has since been expanded to host most Washington based programming for NBC and MSNBC after the network’s Capitol Hill studios were heavily damaged in a fire in January 2019.

The video walls on the set displayed D.C. skylines along with blue “Today” branded graphics.

While Alexander and Walker anchored from Washington, NBC still had Studio 1A up and running — it was used for a “video on video” and “walk and wander” floating handheld camera shot with augmented reality during the show’s overview of the latest coronavirus news as well as live shots for New York based correspondents.

The show used a modified version of its normal open that trimmed off the reference to Studio 1A, but imagery of New York was still seen in it.