NBC White House producer/correspondent Mike Viqueira is returning to Capitol Hill. He will still be covering politics on The Hill (and occasionally at the White House), but will also contribute to general assignment coverage. With Chuck Todd and Kristen Welker not going anywhere, and Peter Alexander joining the White House team, the beat became a bit crowded.

Viqueira had been covering politics the Obama administration for nearly four years, and before that was a Congressional producer.

After almost 4 years at the WH, its back to the Hill for me starting next week. But not before 1 last spot with Lester and @nbcnightlynews

— michael viqueira (@mikeviqueira) December 9, 2012

NBC News is adding to its on-air staff at the White House.

Peter Alexander, who had covered the Romney campaign, has been named White House Correspondent, joining Chuck Todd and Kristen Welker on the beat. Todd continues as NBC News Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent, as well as anchor of MSNBC’s “The Daily Rundown.”

Alexander joined NBC News in 2004. Before NBC, Alexander worked at KCPQ-TV in Seattle,  KHQ-TV in Spokane and WKYT-TV in Lexington, KY.

Alexander is married to Alison Starling an anchor at WJLA-TV in Washington, DC.

“NBC Nightly News” anchor and managing editor Brian Williams heads up NBC’s coverage from Rockefeller Plaza — dubbed Democracy Plaza from now through election day. David Gregory and Savannah Guthrie will join Williams at the anchor desk. Tom Brokaw looks at historical trends, Chuck Todd reports electoral storylines via a studio equipped with  augmented reality, Pete Williams reports on voter irregularities, Andrea Mitchell follows key congressional races, and Lester Holt follows governor’s races and down-ballot issues. Tamron Hall is on exit poll duty for both NBC and MSNBC. Kristen Welker will report from Obama headquarters in Chicago while Peter Alexander will report from Romney headquarters in Boston.

There’ll be coverage on NBC sites theGrio.com, NBCLatino.com and if you have Xbox, you’re in luck, you can watch NBC’s coverage there too.

Much more after the jump…

Read more

After several months of covering the beat, this morning NBC News has named Kristen Welker White House correspondent. The announcement comes as NBC announces their plans for covering the 2012 primaries and general election including the relaunch of NBCPolitics.com.

Welker, who joined NBC News in August 2010, was based in the Los Angeles bureau and began covering the White House when Savannah Guthrie left DC to join the “Today” show in New York.

“Today” show correspondent Peter Alexander will lead the network’s coverage of the Republican presidential race along with Ron Mott, following GOP candidates and the eventual nominee.

Chuck Todd, will continue to anchor his daily MSNBC show as well as his roles as NBC News Political Director and Chief White House Correspondent. He’ll oversee all aspects of the network’s political coverage.

NBC announced yesterday it had hired Perry Bacon as Political Editor of  TheGrio.com. He’ll write and help develop the African-American news site’s political coverage as well as be an on-air contributor to MSNBC.

More details in the release after the jump…

Read more

NBC apologized to GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann Wednesday over the musical introduction during her appearance on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” Monday night. The show’s drummer Questlove had played the song “Lyin’ Ass Bitch.” Fallon apologized via Twitter on Tuesday but yesterday on Fox News, Bachmann demanded an apology from the network. And she got it. Via CNN:

Bachmann received a letter Wednesday from Doug Vaughan, NBC’s senior vice president for special programs and late night, that apologized for what happened, said Alice Stewart, the Republican presidential hopeful’s spokeswoman.

The issue was also a topic this morning on the “Today” show, with a story from Kristen Welker and this Q&A with John Harwood:

At approximately 12:15 PM ET (Update: the address has been pushed back until after the Senate vote), President Obama will make a statement from the Rose Garden regarding the passage of the debt ceiling bill. The broadcast networks are planning special reports to cover the address.

Brian Williams will anchor for NBC from New York, with Kelly O’Donnell on Capitol Hill and Kristen Welker at the White House. ABC has George Stephanopoulos anchoring from New York, with Jake Tapper at the White House and Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill. CBS has Scott Pelley anchoring the network special report from Washington.

Philly.com reports WCAU morning anchor Aditi Roy, is getting “a national tryout” on NBC News. Roy, co-anchors mornings on the NBC O&O, will work out of NBC’s Los Angeles bureau for the summer. The LA bureau is short-staffed at the moment as correspondent Kristen Welker, also a WCAU alum, has been reporting from the White House, since Savannah Guthrie left the beat to co-anchor the third hour of “Today.”

Welker had a similar tryout last year before joining NBC News last August.

Savannah Guthrie is about to make the move from MSNBC to NBC; from Washington DC to new York. Next Thursday she joins the “Today” show as co-anchor of the third hour. And during the third hour this morning, a simulcast of Guthrie’s MSNBC show “The Daily Rundown,” as she was welcomed by Ann Curry, Natalie Morales and Al Roker in New York. “You know this isn’t the first time I’ve been dumped by a girl,” joked Chuck Todd, who will solo anchor MSNBC’s 9am hour for now.

No one has been named to fill Guthrie’s role as White House correspondent, although LA correspondent Kristen Welker has been on the beat recently.

At the top of the 2:00pmET hour, fire crews and demolition teams prepared to set fire to an explosives-packed house in Escondido, a suburb of San Diego, Calif. that authorities say was turned into a bomb-making factory. This was a “breaking news that wasn’t” story, in that everyone knew about the fire for several weeks beforehand. They even went so far as to create a local pool for the event.

At 1:54pmET, Fox News aired pictures from KTTV (FOX News O&O), KSWB (Fox News affiliate), KGTV (ABC affiliate), and FOX News Channel ground shots. FNC reporter Anita Vogel was covering the story in the field. MSNBC began coverage at 1:59pmET with NBC’s Kristen Welker on location with video from KNSD (NBC O&O).

CNN also began coverage at 1:59pmET with a producer on site phoning in. The shot CNN took was a local pool situation set up by the San Diego affiliates. It was set up by local authorities in order to position one camera close to the home which all media outlets could access. HLN was on air with live pictures at 2:08pmET.

As the only child of a big-shot realtor, new NBC hire Kristen Welker knows the three keys to success.

Location, location, location.

Formerly the weekend anchor at NBC-owned WCAU in Philadelphia, Welker (Harvard Class of ’98) moves to a tonier address as of Aug. 30 — Burbank-based NBC News correspondent, it was announced yesterday.

Normally, not a big story. In this case, it could be, given the trajectory of ‘CAU alums at 30 Rock. Check it out: NBC News president Steve Capus, “Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams, “Today” co-anchor Matt Lauer, Don Lemon (now at CNN).

NBC chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell is also an alumnus of ‘CAU, in a way. When she broke into the bigs at NBC in ’78 from Philly’s KYW, it was an NBC affiliate. In ’95, KYW swapped networks with ‘CAU, then with CBS.

All of which begs the question: Could Welker’s professional bloodlines mean bigger and better things for her in the future at NBC?

Read more