WGN American announced today that it will rebrand as NewsNation beginning March 1. With the rebranding, the channel will expand its news programming to include five hours of news on weeknights.
Joining the recently announced newscast “Banfield” hosted by journalist Ashleigh Banfield, the channel will be adding two new hour long shows: “NewsNation Early Edition” at 6 pm ET, and “The Donlon Report,” anchored by Joe Donlon at 7 pm ET.
The channel’s current newscast, “NewsNation”, will be renamed “NewsNationPrime” which will air from 8-10 pm ET and will be anchored by journalists Marni Hughes and Rob Nelson.
“Rebranding WGN America as NewsNation underscores the network’s clearly defined mission of delivering fact-based and unbiased news, while making it easier for viewers to find this new informative source for news,” said Sean Compton, Nexstar Inc.’s Networks Division President. “At the same time, expanding our news programming to five hours Monday through Friday will extend the network’s reach and the depth of its news content across more weeknight time periods, delivering viewers more national news and regional stories from across the U.S., as well as coverage of the day’s most important issues.”
The network recently made distribution agreements with both streaming and cable providers, including a multi year deal with YouTube TV and another with Hulu. The channel was also added to fuboTV earlier this month. The channel has expanded its reach to an additional 8.5 million households with its recent deals combined.