John Michael Seigenthaler ( ; born December 21, 1955) is an American news anchor and a member of the

George Foster Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in ...

s board of jurors. He is a former weekend anchor and correspondent for both

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

and

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

. He is the son of the late newspaper journalist John Lawrence Seigenthaler, and named for his father. He is best known for his eight-year tenure as weekend anchor of ''

NBC Nightly News ''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas'' for its weeknight broadcasts ) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NBC television network ...

''. In July 2008, Seigenthaler joined his family company Seigenthaler Public Relations, but continued to be based in New York.Yahoo Business Press Release (July 17, 2008)
/ref> From 2013–2016 he worked for the now defunct

Al Jazeera America Al Jazeera America was an American pay television news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network. The channel was launched on August 20, 2013, to compete with CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox News, and in certain markets RT America. It was Al Jazee ...

as its evening news anchor.

Life and career

Seigenthaler is a graduate of

Father Ryan High School Father Ryan High School is a private Catholic Church, Catholic high school in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1925 as Nashville Catholic High School for Boys, Father Ryan is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nashville, Diocese of Nashvill ...

and

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, where he received a bachelor of science degree in public policy in 1978. Seigenthaler began his television news career in 1980 as a writer and producer at WNGE-TV (now WKRN-TV) in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

. From 1981 to 1990, he reported and produced for WSMV-TV, Nashville and also hosted a weekday public affairs show. From there he moved to

KOMO-TV KOMO-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue-licensed The CW, CW affiliate ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

, Washington, where he anchored the weekend evening news. In January 1992, he married KOMO weeknight anchor Kerry Brock, who later joined him at the weekend anchor desk at KOMO. Then he moved back to Nashville, where he co-anchored the evening news for WKRN-TV. In September 1999, he became interim co-host on ''

Weekend Today Weekend editions of '' Today'', an American morning news and talk program that airs daily on NBC, began with the launch of the Sunday edition of the program on September 20, 1987. After NBC expanded ''Today'' to seven days a week in the 1990s ...

'' with

Soledad O'Brien María de la Soledad Teresa O'Brien (born September 19, 1966) is an American broadcast journalist and executive producer. Since 2016, O'Brien has been the host for '' Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien,'' a nationally syndicated weekly talk sho ...

. He returned in 2003, following the death of David Bloom. In 1996, he was one of the rotating Sunday anchors, and became the main Sunday anchor in 1998. Seigenthaler served as the anchor for the weekend edition of ''

'' for more than seven years of his 11-year tenure with NBC News. Seigenthaler announced during his April 1, 2007, newscast that it was his final broadcast as anchor of the weekend edition of ''

.''Associated Press (April 2, 2007)
John Seigenthaler Leaves NBC Anchor Spot.
/ref> He also hosted the television shows ''Lockup'' and ''

MSNBC Investigates ''MSNBC Documentaries'' is the umbrella title of a series of Documentary film, documentaries co-produced by NBC News and MSNBC. Broadcast on MSNBC, each documentary is given its own title to broadcast under (e.g., ''Lockup: Return to Pelican B ...

'' on

NBC News NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Media Group, a division of NBCUniversal, which is itself a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's various operations r ...

President Steve Capus said Seigenthaler's contract was not renewed because the network could no longer afford the luxury of employing a staff member whose primary duty was anchoring the weekend evening news programs. The network announced in October 2006 that job cuts and consolidation of operations would slice some $750 million from parent

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

's budget by 2008. After NBC, he worked for the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

until joining Seigenthaler Public Relations in July 2008. In 2013 he began work for

as the anchorman for its one-hour prime time news broadcasts at 8 pm Eastern and 11 pm Eastern time. Seigenthaler lives in

Weston, Connecticut Weston ( ) is a New England town, town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,354 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and had the highest median income in the state of Connecticut. The town is part of the ...

,"People & Places" column, Business section, ''

The Advocate An advocate is a professional in the field of law. The Advocate, The Advocates or Advocate may also refer to: Magazines * The Advocate (magazine), ''The Advocate'' (magazine), an LGBT magazine based in the United States * ''The Harvard Advocate' ...

'' of

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Weste ...

, July 22, 2008, p A7 (both Stamford and Norwalk editions; '' Greenwich Time'' newspaper publishes the same business section: "John Seigenthaler of Weston has joined Seigenthaler Public Relations Inc. .. with his wife and son.

Journalism awards

*Two-time

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

recipient *Recipient of the

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New Yo ...

Television News award *Recipient of the National Headliner Award *Recipient of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

Award *

Iris Award The NATPE Iris Awards is an honor for local television programming presented annually in the United States by the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE). The awards were first introduced in 1968 and were initially titled ...

winner *Recipient of the

Al Neuharth Allen Harold "Al" Neuharth (March 22, 1924 – April 19, 2013) was an American businessman, author, and columnist born in Eureka, South Dakota. He was the founder of ''USA Today'', The Freedom Forum, and its Newseum. Early life Al Neuharth was ...

Award

Bibliography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seigenthaler, John Jr. American broadcast news analysts American television reporters and correspondents Place of birth missing (living people) News & Documentary Emmy Award winners Sanford School of Public Policy alumni Television anchors from Nashville, Tennessee 1955 births Living people Al Jazeera people NBC News people Television anchors from Seattle CNBC people People from Weston, Connecticut