NBC’s Gadi Schwartz Moves From Snapchat To The Anchor Desk With Debut Of ‘Stay Tuned Now’

If you’re of a certain age—over 40, let’s say, or someone who thinks NBC News means Lester Holt or Tom Brokaw—then you may not know Gadi Schwartz. But for a generation that’s grown up getting their news from TikTok, not NBC Nightly News, Schwartz is a very familiar face. Along with NBC News’ Savannah Sellers, Schwartz pioneered NBC’s use of social media to reach Gen Z and Millennials with Stay Tuned, a daily news show on Snapchat and TikTok that draws 38 million views monthly.

Tonight, Schwartz hopes to bring those young viewers from their phones to an actual TV screen as he debuts Stay Tuned Now with Gadi Schwartz in prime time on NBC’s streaming platform, NBC News Now. And that raises the burning question: will he wear a hoodie?

“When we started Snapchat and Stay Tuned… we just did it conversationally,” Schwartz told me. “I wear hoodies on a normal basis…so like, I just did it in a hoodie, right? I did it with whatever I was wearing. And it resonated with the audiences.”

When Stay Tuned debuted on Snapchat in 2017, it hit one million subscribers in just two and a half weeks, and 29 million unique viewers in its first month, proving that a legacy brand like NBC News could reach those elusive younger viewers—and do it with hard news (in its first few months, more than 60% of the Stay Tuned audience was under 25, and more than 40% watched the show at least three times a week).

“You started seeing a lot of people realize that they could just do the news” in a way that made sense for audiences on TikTok and Snapchat, Schwartz said. That meant doing real reporting, just in a way that’s familiar to the audience and doesn’t look or sound like the newscasts that parents or grandparents watch. “They don’t have to look like a newscaster, they don’t have to be in a studio.”

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The launch of Stay Tuned Now comes as NBC continues building a formidable digital presence. Last year, NBC News Now saw its average monthly viewership accelerate, hitting 34 million hours—up 55% from 2021—becoming the fastest-growing streaming news network in the U.S. “It has been an incredible year for us,” said Janelle Rodriguez, senior vice president at NBC and head of NBC News Now told me in December. “We have put our top talent into this space to become the biggest and the best news network in the streaming space right now.”

Stay Tuned Now will stream live at 8 p.m. ET from NBC’s bureau in Los Angeles, with Schwartz on a set colored in hues of purple, pink and yellow in a nod to sunset in the West. “We’re hoping that the idea that it’s sunset here in Los Angeles when everybody else on the East Coast are winding down, like the news is just getting started—it’s five o’clock,” Schwartz said.

Stay Tuned Now joins a digital lineup that now features more than 11 hours of live programming and comes as anchor Hallie Jackson expands her daily newscast Hallie Jackson Now to two hours, from 5 to 7 p.m. ET. For Schwartz, NBC’s massive digital presence gives him a chance to introduce himself to a new audience while also spending more time with viewers who made Stay Tuned a success on Snapchat and TikTok. “What we’ve done with this show is we’ve tried to create that bridge…I think it’s going to feel fresh for traditional audiences, and it’s going to be familiar for younger audiences,” he said.

Just don’t expect Schwartz to spend the entire hour sitting at a desk, and no, he won’t be wearing a tie. “I hate wearing ties…I can’t even remember the last time I saw somebody wearing a tie in L.A.,” he said. “From the whole vibe in the studio to the way we talk to people, you’re going to be able to tell that this is a little bit more of a laid back approach to the news. That’s not to say that we’re not going to cover breaking news with the gravitas that it deserves.”