John Reiss named Executive Producer, “Hardball with Chris Matthews”
Posted: Thursday, November 29, 2007 1:18 PM by Cathy Finkler
John Reiss has been named executive
producer of "Hardball with Chris Matthews," it was announced today by
Phil Griffin, Senior Vice President, NBC News and Executive in Charge of
MSNBC. Reiss will also play a critical
role in MSNBC's political coverage throughout the election year. The appointment is effective
immediately.
"I'm tremendously excited to
have John join 'Hardball' as the 2008 election season heats up," said Griffin. "He's a terrific producer who knows
politics and knows how to find and tell the big stories. He's the perfect person to have in place at
this critical time."
"Hardball is incredibly
fortunate to have recruited someone of John Reiss' professional caliber,"
said Chris Matthews, anchor and managing editor of "Hardball."
"He has the expertise, the experience and the imagination to give Hardball
what it needs."
"I'm thrilled to be working
with Chris and the wonderfully talented staff at Hardball," said
Reiss. "This is the best political
show on TV. I love politics and I can't imagine a better place to be in a
presidential election year."
Reiss, a nine-time Emmy Award
winner, most recently served as executive producer of "NBC Nightly News
with Brian Williams," from 2005 until March of 2007. During his tenure, "Nightly News"
received more high-level journalism awards than any network evening newscast
has in years. The awards included: four Emmy Awards, a duPont-Columbia Award, a
Peabody Award, a Polk Award, six Edward R. Murrow Awards, including two for
"Best Newscast," sixteen National Headliner Awards including two for
"Best Newscast," two Gerald Loeb Awards for financial reporting, two
Sigma Delta Chi awards and two Gracie Awards.
Reiss was previously the senior broadcast producer of "Nightly
News" from 2002 - 2005.
Prior to joining "Nightly
News," Reiss was a producer and senior producer at "Dateline
NBC" from 1994 - 2002. At "Dateline," he was a member of the
senior staff and supervised many projects, including two award-winning hours,
"The Roots of Rage," on the U.S. and Islam after 9/11, and
"The Plane Truth," on the airline industry.
Before joining NBC News in 1994,
Reiss was a producer at ABC's "Good Morning America" from April 1991
- July 1994. At GMA, he produced a variety of stories, focusing on hard news
and filled in regularly both as head of the field producing unit and as a line
producer, overseeing the entire week's programming.
From 1983 - 1988, Reiss was a writer
and later head writer for ABC's "World News this Morning," and for
GMA's news segments. From 1988 - 1991 he was ABC's morning news editorial
producer, during which time he covered many stories, including the 1988
US-Soviet summit in Moscow and the 1989
democracy movement in China.
Reiss was in Tiananmen Square on the night of
the government's crackdown.
He began his journalism career in
print journalism and radio. He worked as a news clerk at "The New York
Times'" Washington bureau and wrote and
reported for Buffalo's
only all-news radio station and for "The Buffalo Evening News."
He
graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo with a Bachelor of Arts in political
science.
