Chuck Todd Launches Second Season of MTP Reports, With Focus on Domestic Extremism and Impact of Capitol Insurrection

William B. Plowman/NBC

Meet The Press Reports, Chuck Todd’s deep-dive show on streaming service NBC News Now, kicks off its second season Thursday, with the host exploring violent domestic extremism in the U.S. and whether the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol could be a harbinger of potential future violence.

“The season premiere dives into how populism, grievance politics and nationalism play into extremism and what law enforcement, national security experts and elected officials can do to combat domestic terrorism in the future,” NBC News said in a statement.

The first episode will feature reporting from NBC News correspondent and NBC News Now co-anchor Morgan Radford, as well as a panel of experts on extremism.

Meet the Press Reports is a weekly 30-minute program that explores a single topic, and Todd said he won’t shy away from tough issues. He said that expanding into streaming was a natural next step for the Meet the Press family of shows and specials, as NBC News Now has fewer constraints than broadcast or cable, and allows for more in-depth and nuanced reporting.

“Each episode is single topic driven, providing more time and space to go deep on a story,” Todd told Mediate. “Many of the episodes will be more narrative driven, as it’s always a more compelling way to tell a complicated and, yes, controversial story.”

Todd told Mediaite that his favorite episode of the first season was the re-creation of Oct. 7, 2016, when three different “October Surprises” dropped ahead of the presidential election: the administration of then-President Barack Obama officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere in the election, the Washington Post published the now-infamous “Access Hollywood tape,” and WikiLeaks released emails hacked from then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta’s email account.

Todd calls that day “the most consequential day in recent American political history … It’s still hard to believe all that happened and how much we still haven’t recovered from that day as a country.”

While the 2020 presidential election provided a natural focus for the first season, the upcoming season of Meet the Press Reports will focus on topics including cybersecurity, water insecurity in the U.S., immigration, millennials and the future of American politics, and a look at the historic unrest that gripped the country.

“The episode topics cover the biggest problems the country is facing but from a unique angle,” Todd told Mediaite. “So we aren’t just going to do a ‘climate’ episode, but we’ll go deep on a subject, like this season, focusing on various threats on our access to clean water.”

“Bottom line, give us 30 minutes, the length of each episode and I promise you, you’ll come away with a better understanding of that issue,” Todd added.

Meet The Press Reports is a part of NBC’s Meet the Press brand, which, in addition to the network’s Sunday morning public affairs program, includes Todd’s MTP Daily on MSNBC, a daily morning newsletter, a podcast, and various limited series and specials.

First-run episodes of Meet the Press Reports start at 8 p.m. EST, with an encore at 11 p.m., and will be available on Peacock, NBC’s streaming service, starting Friday.

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