NBC News doesn’t have a start date or a name for its new prime-time news show to be led by Nightly News Brian Williams, but it does have an executive producer, as of today. Rome Hartman, who helped create the BBC’s American flagship newscast, BBC World News America, has signed on with NBC in an announcement from the network today. ”

While Fox News, MSNBC and CNN soak up most of the cable news oxygen in the U.S., the Brits want a piece of the action.

Rome Hartman, executive producer of BBC World News America, believes there’s a huge piece of the news landscape being ignored by the three main players in U.S. cable news: the world beyond Washington and Wasilla.

Hartman believes the cable news networks are “relentlessly focused on domestic events and issues,” leaving the rest of the world, essentially, ripe for the picking:

As ratings fall drastically for ABC and CBS’ evening newscasts so far in 2010 (although have shown increases for NBC), one alternative nightly newscast is being honored at next month’s Peabody Awards.

BBC World News America will be honored for overall excellence – a big boost for the cable program, and just one of the two awards being given for the newscast.

The passing of Walter Cronkite brings back memories of a time when the CBS Evening News not only dominated the ratings, but the news conversation as a whole. And it turns a light on the current situation at the network, where the newscast sits in a clear third. There are many reasons for this: here’s why the CBS Evening News is struggling in the ratings, how it can turn things around…and why none of it is Katie Couric’s fault.