Meet The Press (MTP) is a weekly television news show produced by NBC. It started as a radio show in 1945, as American Mercury Presents: Meet the Press, and was later adapted for television. Meet The Press made its television debut on November 6, 1947, making it the longest-running television show in United States broadcasting history.

Meet the Press and similar Sunday-morning interview shows specialize in interviewing national leaders on issues of state, economics and foreign policy. These shows help fulfill the obligations of the networks to provide a public service to the community.

The show was originally presented as a 30-minute press conference. The original host, Lawrence E. Spivak , the publisher of conservative political and cultural magazine American Mercury till 1954, remained on the show until November 1975.

Today, the show is an interview and roundtable discussion. Tim Russert has hosted the show since December 8, 1991. Its full name then changed to Meet the Press with Tim Russert. The show expanded to 60 minutes in 1992.

Russert's sign-off has been: "That's all for today. We'll be back next week. If it's Sunday, it's 'Meet the Press'," to which Saturday Night Live often adds, "Go Bills!"

External link

• Official website