Willie Geist and his eponymous weekly news program are celebrating a major milestone: a decade on air.
“Sunday Today with Willie Geist” debuted on April 17, 2016. Then, NBC executives gave Geist “a blank canvas” on which the journalist, also a co-host of “Morning Joe,” envisioned marrying two concepts, kicking the program off with a news discussion and then moving to a format more similar to “Today,” with a sit-down interview as its centerpiece.
“It's certainly evolved and changed since then,” Geist, 50, tells USA TODAY. The hourlong show includes a brief news overview, a thoughtful, in-depth obituary spotlight called A Life Well Lived and the playfully-dubbed Mug Shots, which highlights viewers posing with yellow “Sunday Today” cups. The interviews themselves spun off a podcast: “Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist,” introduced in 2018, extends his conversations with noteworthy guests like Jamie Lee Curtis, Viola Davis, Ina Garten, Michael B. Jordan and Matthew McConaughey.
Sunday Sitdown Live, launched in January 2025 with comedian Nate Bargatze, puts Geist and a guest in front of a live audience. On April 7, he hosted Ryan Reynolds.
“That was our 10th anniversary party in that room,” Geist says. The April 12 show will give viewers a behind-the-scenes look at production and revisit interview highlights.
