Live From New York ... It's Monday Morning
The people who got to cut the ribbon? Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Willie Geist and the rest of my friends at "Morning Joe." (Along with their big brain behind the curtain, producer Chris Licht.)
The first couple of minutes was spent piling praise on the construction crew, the engineers and pretty much gawking at their new habitat.
I dropped a line to Willie Geist to see what he thought of the new place. His response?
The new studio is beautiful. It's sleek, modern, and cool. The only reminder that it's not a hip New York nightclub is that they let me in the door.I wasn't up early enough to catch the show (thanks, Jake Westbrook) but according to Chris Ariens at TVNewser, "the studio walls and ceiling pillars change color based on the news" – resulting in an odd mood ring sort of feel to the presentation. This writer's not sure how long MSNBC will stick with that particular concept – will they change to green when Erin Burnett gives her daily financial update? – but the new studios are a sight to behold.There are about 300 HD monitors in the new studio. It's like being at ESPN Zone without having bitter Jets fans screaming at the TVs and breathing blue cheese on you. When Joe is talking about immigration reform or the Armenian genocide bill, I'm actually looking over his shoulder catching up on my soap operas…
Nothing against Secaucus, New Jersey (for my money, there's no finer place to go outlet shopping), but we've all been re-energized by the move to 30 Rock. A lot of people worked really hard over the last several months to bring us this modern marvel of a television studio. Unfortunately, we now have to live up to our surroundings. We're excited to give it a shot.