Lester Holt has been reporting the news to the American public for more than four decades. His latest media venture focuses on a more specific audience: children.
Nightly News: Kids Edition is a twice-weekly online program that breaks down major news stories to help children understand whats happening in the world.
Holt, who anchors the program, spoke to HuffPost about the decision to create a kid-centric newscast and how its reminiscent of his experience explaining current events to his own children when they were young. (He has two adult sons, Stefan and Cameron.)
Creating A News Program For Children
Holt said that Nightly News: Kids Edition was born out of some of the worst days of the COVID crisis in New York, as the numbers of cases and deaths were mounting every day.
I was anchoring the newscast every night, and it was grim. I mean, it was really, really grim, he recalled. I worried because I knew that families watch it together sometimes, and I was wondering how kids were absorbing all this, these things that were not only rattling them but also their parents.
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The kid-friendly program features conversations with experts, interviews with children and parents who are making waves, roundtable discussions and question-and-answer segments. Each episode runs around six to 10 minutes and hits at 4 p.m. ET every Tuesday and Thursday on NBCNews.com, as well as the NBC News apps, YouTube channel and Peacock. Holt said hes been glad to receive positive feedback from parents and kids.
The world is very scary for all of us right now, he said. Were concerned because were riding through the COVID crisis, the economic crisis, were at this crossroads of a reckoning over race in America. These are very heavy topics for grown-ups, and I think sometimes we forget that there are kids watching or being exposed to this in other ways that we dont always have as much control over. So its important for parents to engage with their kids.
Explaining George Floyd And Protests To Kids
Nightly News: Kids Edition sometimes begins with a disclaimer telling kids to let their parents know when a topic of discussion is particularly serious in case theyd want to watch the program with their children. This was the case when they covered the death of George Floyd and the protests that followed.
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When George Floyd was murdered, the impact of that story was huge, Holt explained, noting that they worked hard to present the issues in an age-appropriate way, while encouraging parents to continue the discussion after the newscast.
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