News media personality Roland Martin, along with along with legendary gospel music singer Erica Campbell, are co-hosting TV One’s Urban One Honors awards show this Sunday (May 16), as the third annual awards event showcases individuals and organizations whose work significantly impacts society and culture. 

Martin, formerly host of TV One’s daily news show News One Now, has recently taken his talents to the digital platform, hosting a daily web-based YouTube series -- #RolandMartinUnfiltered -- which focuses on news and analysis from an African-American perspective. Martin also recently launched a new Facebook Watch series, We Got Next: An Intergenerational Dialogue, which features discussions between youth and elders involved in social activism.

I recently spoke to Martin about his transition to digital media from traditional television and the opportunities the emerging platform affords diverse voices. Martin also discusses the need for more African-American owned news outlets and outlines what needs to be done to create a path for success. An edited version of the interview appears below.

Also Read: TV One's 'Uncensored'  to Air Final Interview with DMX

Picture This: What is the theme and message of this year’s version of the Urban Honors event? 

Roland Martin: The focus this year is specifically on the work that black women have been doing in areas dealing with activism, with COVID, voting rights and things along those lines. That’s what makes this year’s ceremony a lot different than in years past. For me it was pretty cool to be one of the few guys involved with it given this year’s focus.

Picture This: You’ve remained active over the past year even with the media slowdown due to the pandemic. How were you able to navigate through COVID?

RM: It’s been really interesting because we were properly positioned for COVID. When COVID hit the television networks had to pivot, but it highlighted what we were already doing digitally. I had a studio at home, so when COVID hit it was a boon to us because we were already positioned to work remotely, and we saw our numbers grow exponentially. I think that will continue through 2021 and 2022 because I just don’t think we’re going back to so-called normal anytime soon. We’re positioned to be mobile and versatile.

PT: From a news perspective, is the industry moving more toward the digital space as more consumers turn to digital for their information and entertainment?

RM: What we're experiencing right now is market fragmentation. The traditional gatekeepers no longer get to control everything. It used to be that you had no choice but to go to MSNBC, Fox News or CNN for 24-hour news coverage. What we've proven on the digital side is that people will seek out information beyond traditional television. Now look where we are -- CBS has expanded their digital offerings; NBC has created a separate digital channel. We started with 157,000 subscribers on YouTube and now we have more than 770,000 subscribers. If you know how to do it and understand the technology then you can be successful.

Also Read: TV One Pushes the Power of Representation

PT: How do we make sure that African-American owned and targeted content providers competed in an otherwise crowded media environment?

RM: What we’re doing right now with distributors and advertising agencies is drawing the line. We’re saying that there’s a reason why Black owned media has been strangled … it’s an abomination that these companies have been spending 1% with black-owned media when they know that black people are spending far more.  [Entertainment Studios CEO] Byron Allen has made it clear that he will sue companies, and I have made it clear that I will shine a light and call you out publicly. If companies have a $2 billion advertising budget, then 10% of that needs to be in black media. That would be a game changer. It means that we can do in one year what it took us 10 years to do. Now you can deal with capacity and you’re able to grow. That’s how we’re able to compete.

PT: So what is the outlook next year for Black-owned media companies? 

RM: I think next year we're going to be having a conversation where black owned media moves from getting 1% of the [advertising] dollars to 5% of the dollars. I believe you're going to see exponential growth. But it is only going to happen if you have people who are willing to stand up. We need major corporate leaders to say this has to change.

PT: What’s next for you and your production company Nu Vision Media?

RM: The next thing for us, and I’ve stated it publicly, is our OTT channels. People will soon be able to access our content on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung TV and other platforms. This environment is great for independent content creators to reach audiences. We also just launched a six-part series with Facebook as part of its “We The Culture” programming Initiative where I create these intergenerational conversations, such as Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright and Ambassador Andrew Young and young activist Kris Payne with Public Enemy’s Chuck D.

UPDATED: TV One later this month will end production of its live, daily news program News One Now, hosted byRoland Martin.

The two-hour, morning news/public affairs program targeted to African-American audiences will end its run Dec. 21, according to the New York Post, which first printed the story.

TV One said Friday that it would look to "restructure" News One Now in 2018 under a new format that will better serve its audience and advertisers. “Providing a platform for Black voices is in the DNA of our entire company,” said TV One CEO Alfred Liggins in a statement.  “As a Black-owned multi-media company, Urban One (parent company of TV One) engages Black America daily, not just on television, but radio and also online via NewsOne.com and on 77 digital platforms.  We know there is a void in mainstream media and we plan to continue to be an outlet for Black news. Roland Martin will be a part of that plan.”

RELATED: TV One to Expand 'News "One Now' to Two Hours

TV One interim general manager Michelle Rice said that the network made the “difficult” decision to suspend production of the show due to costs. “We had to make a tough decision to suspend a show we all love.  Despite the best efforts of the many talented people who work on this amazing show day to day, NewsOne Now struggled to attract a wide audience. Like any other network, we had to make a difficult choice," she said. 

 TV One in a tweet said it will continue its “long-standing relationship” with Roland Martin. 

We are committed to providing quality news to our viewers and to our long-standing relationship with @rolandsmartin#NewsOneNow who will continue to have a voice on #TVOne.

— TV One (@tvonetv) December 7, 2017

Martin also turned to Twitter to announce the end of the show, which launched in 2013 and was expanded to two hours this past September. 

Fam, the sad news is true. The staff of @tvonetv#NewsOneNow was informed this afternoon that after four years of doing groundbreaking and award-winning work, the show will cease production at the end of the year. Our last live show will be Dec. 21. #BringTheFunk

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) December 7, 2017

Related (Video): Roland Martin discusses 'News One Now's' 2016 Presidential election coverage

Viewers could not get enough of TV news during the 2016 presidential election, spelling a windfall for the top news outlets. Needless to say, Donald Trump’s move to the White House has helped keep the ratings robust. Viewers look to the journalists they most respect to assess our nation’s new leadership and the sizzling issues that divide us, and to break down the latest developments in a coherent, and appealing, manner.

We spotlight 10 of the most influential figures in TV news today. Whether they’re network brass or on-air talent, on broadcast or cable, or focused on morning or evening news, we highlight who is making the most of their perch in the news game, and leaving the largest mark on the industry. Among the top anchors, one thing becomes clear: The stoic demeanor that has long defined the role is anything but required.

Who is most masterfully using newer media platforms? Who is doing the best job of tackling Trump? Who is leaving the concept of fake news far, far behind?

Our top TV news players make a case for the answers.

Related > It’s All Business Leading a Net on a Roll: Q&A With FBN's Brian Jones

JOHN DICKERSON
CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent; Host, Face the Nation

Dickerson had a tough act to follow when he succeeded Bob Schieffer as Face the Nation host two years ago. But he has done a bang-up job, with an expert’s knowledge of the hot political issues, and a knack for knocking power players off their script with incisive questions.

“He stepped into giant shoes, and I think he filled them well,” former CBS News president Andrew Heyward said.

Dickerson put in a dozen years covering politics at Time, and then did a memorable stint at Slate.com before joining CBS News in 2009, decades after his mother was a producer there.

He has displayed a knack for maneuvering deftly on the newer platforms, hosting the podcast Whistlestop, which chronicles great moments in presidential history; running a lively blog on Tumblr; and amassing 2.17 million Twitter followers.

Dickerson showed his interviewing mettle when he pushed President Donald Trump in April on comments made about President Barack Obama tapping his phone. Trump ended up walking out during the questioning. “How delicious it is to see Trump’s protestations about ‘fake news’ come straight back in his face,” Erik Wemple said in The Washington Post. — Michael Malone

RACHEL MADDOWHost, The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC

MSNBC topped CNN in primetime among viewers 25-54 in the second quarter, and much of the credit for the major momentum goes to Maddow. The onetime Air America Radio host is now very much a full-blown TV star, averaging 2.5 million total viewers in the second quarter in her 9 p.m. slot, and emerging as a voice of reason in the key younger demo.

The Rachel Maddow Show premiered in 2008 and found its voice during the Obama administration. When Trump took over the presidency, Maddow and Co. were ready to rock. NBC News chairman Andrew Lack set out to remake MSNBC as a nonpartisan news channel, but it is liberal personalities, such as Maddow, that define the network. Her steely focus on the administration’s missteps, including its connection with Russia, is music to the ears of many Americans who disapprove of the president.

Fellow MSNBC host Chris Hayes, speaking in Rolling Stone, referred to Rhodes scholar Maddow as “a master of the medium,” with a knack for smart storytelling and a tireless work rate. — MM

ROLAND MARTIN
Anchor, NewsOne Now, TV One

Roland Martin is unapologetic about delivering breaking news and top issues of the day from an African-American perspective — one that is often ignored by mainstream cable channels — on his four-year-old, one-hour TV One morning news show, NewsOne Now.

From topics such as health care to issues relating to gun violence, the former CNN on-air reporter and the recipient of the 2013 Journalist of the Year award from the National Association of Black Journalists continues to provide African-American viewers with a forum to discuss and examine how such issues affect their lives. As a result, 2016 was NewsOne Now’s most-watched year ever.

Martin’s powerful voice on such issues has led TV One to expand NewsOne Now to two hours beginning this fall. “Since we launched the show, our audience has been clamoring for more coverage of the issues they wanted to talk about from their own perspective, so the extra hour gives us more opportunities to do more news or to go deeper into stories,” Martin said this past April during the network’s upfront presentation. — R. Thomas Umstead

JORGE RAMOS
Anchor, Noticiero Univision; Host, Al Punto

Ramos is a man for all platforms. He has been Univision’s Noticiero anchor since 1986, writes a weekly column for a variety of newspapers and provides daily radio commentary on Radio Univision. He is also host of the weekly public-affairs show Al Punto and the young adult Englishlanguage newscast America With Jorge Ramos on Fusion.

The Hispanic community sees Ramos as more than a journalist; he is also viewed as an advocate for their most heartfelt issues. When Ramos was ejected from a Donald Trump press conference in August 2015 after posing a question about immigration, many viewers felt they were being booted out, too.

Like his viewers, Ramos sees immigration as more than a political issue. “This is personal,” Ramos told CNN after his ejection. “When he’s talking about immigrants, he’s talking about me.”

Ramos, a Mexican-American, delivers the evening news with Maria Elena Salinas. In 2015, he made the list of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. Said Christiane Amanpour in Time: “He knows he has a voice and is not afraid to use it. He shouts from every rooftop that Hispanic rights are human rights.” — MM

ROBIN ROBERTS
Co-Anchor, Good Morning America, ABC

Roberts has been a rock in morning news, and the most vital element in GMA’s total-viewers winning streak. And while NBC’s Today retains the 25-54 title, GMA this past spring seized the Daytime Emmy award for Outstanding Morning Show.

Roberts has been co-anchor since 2005. Viewers respond to her genuine nature, and she’s responsible for the upbeat mood that dominates the set; absent is the wall between talent and crew one finds at other network programs. Roberts’s effusive demeanor is also essential to the chatty roundtable GMA uses to present the news.

She is, in short, “America’s broadcasting sweetheart,” said The New York Times.

If that seems like a lofty title for a morning news anchor, look at the news revenue figures. Morning news rang up $836.5 million in 2016 revenue, said Pew Research Center, nearly double evening news’s $420.9 million.

The GMA host isn’t limited to mornings. Roberts’s “intimate conversations” podcast, “Everybody’s Got Something,” recently returned for season two. Her Rock’n Robin Productions produced the ABC specials Game Changers and Thank You, America, among others. — MM

CHRISTOPHER RUDDY
CEO, Newsmax

Hundreds of journalists cover the day-to-day machinations of President Trump, but few if any have the inside access to him that Ruddy does. The 52-year-old CEO of the conservative-leaning Newsmax media juggernaut arguably makes as much news as he breaks via his website, newsletter and cable news channel.

Dubbed the “Trump whisperer” by The Washington Post, Ruddy is not shy about touting his longtime friendship with the president. In early June — hours after being seen leaving the White House — Ruddy was quoted by the mainstream press as saying that Trump was considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Ruddy also made headlines two weeks ago, speaking out against Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed merger with Tribune Media, telling Multichannel News that Trump himself “warned about the concentration of media power.” Ruddy is an “outsider who has insider access and, more importantly, is willing to share it,” CNN senior media correspondent Brian Stelter said in a June 13 column. — RTU

SUZANNE SCOTT
President, Programming & Development, Fox News Channel

It has been a brutal year at Fox News Channel, starting with Roger Ailes’s resignation, and including star host Bill O’Reilly’s departure in April and co-president Bill Shine’s in May. But the Murdochs have said they are determined to change its culture, and Scott is well-positioned to leave a lasting mark.

A 20-plus-year veteran of Fox News, she was named executive vice president of programming last summer and president of programming in May. Scott has her work cut out for her in winning over skeptical staff. She is named in multiple lawsuits against Fox News leadership, and was seen by many as a loyal deputy to Shine and to Ailes. Ailes biographer Gabriel Sherman said Scott was responsible for enforcing his dress code — miniskirts — for female talent. Fox News says Sherman is incorrect in his reporting about Scott being involved with a dress code policy.

Still, Scott is in a key position to remake the place in a less controversial public image. She moved Tucker Carlson Tonight from 9 p.m. to O’Reilly’s former slot at 8 p.m. and debuted the freewheeling Fox News Specialists in May. And with FNC retaining ratings gusto despite the loss of key players, she’s off to a promising start. — MM

JAKE TAPPER
Chief Washington Correspondent, CNN; Host, The Lead and State of the Union

Tapper earned a lofty description from an admiring The Washington Post earlier this year: “The conscience of cable news,” the paper wrote, giving him points for bluntly calling out President Trump for “falsehoods and other strange conduct.”

Indeed, the host of weekday show The Lead and Sunday series State of the Union readily reports on the at-times funky facts emerging from the White House. Upon accepting the Canadian Journalism Foundation’s Tribute Award last month (his mother is Canadian), Tapper said he became a journalist “to hold people in power accountable, to try to tell stories other journalists weren’t telling and to try to have serious discussions about the way policies impact people’s lives.”

He’ll get another award in September, when the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) gives him its John F. Hogan Distinguished Service Award for standout journalism. But the year’s highlight for Tapper, a cartoonist before the journalism kicked in, may have been when he was asked to lend those talents to the Mad magazine book MAD About Trump.

Deborah Jaramillo, director of the graduate film and television studies program at Boston University, and author of the cable news book Ugly War, Pretty Package, said Tapper’s facial expressions on-air say almost as much as his questions. “It’s interesting that he lets his frustrations show,” she said. — MM

CHUCK TODDNBC News Political Director; Host of Meet the Press (NBC) and MTP Daily (MSNBC)

U.S. politics has no larger TV figure than Chuck Todd. Thanks to Todd’s political expertise, NBC easily topped its broadcast brethren in Election Night ratings. “He knows what’s going on inside the Beltway,” news analyst Andrew Tyndall said.

Todd took on the Meet the Press host role from David Gregory in 2014 — the show had fallen into last place — and reviews focused on his straight-talking perspective, which multiple critics said reminded them of the legendary Tim Russert. The New York Times said, “Todd may still be the substitute teacher, but he looks like he could quickly master the class.”

Tyndall suggested Todd has done so, calling him “the political scientist” among the Sunday morning hosts.

Todd is not above showing his frustration with a guest when the situation allows, Jaramillo noted. That makes him “a champion for a lot of people who feel they’re under threat,” she said. — MM

JEFF ZUCKER
President, CNN Worldwide

With the country so divided along political lines, it’s a boon for Fox News Channel and MSNBC and their ideologically driven primetime programming. Yet Zucker sees the split as an opportunity for CNN. He told The New York Times that CNN viewers are akin to undecided voters, which President Trump is looking to “sway” because they’re not watching Fox News or MSNBC.

Zucker also told the Times that CNN is on track to earn more than $1 billion in profit this year. “He’s on a roll,” news analyst Andrew Tyndall said. “He’s the king of all cable news at the moment.”

Zucker has focused CNN on Trump ever since the Donald took that fateful glide down the Trump Tower escalator two years ago. The president’s disdain for CNN grows every day, and the network’s missteps, including the resignations of three journos after a faulty story about a Trump ally, only gave him more ammunition. But those setbacks have the hyper-competitive Zucker even more motivated to focus his 3,500 staffers on doing a standout job.

Tyndall said CNN has joined The Washington Post and The New York Times as “central players” in vital Trump news. — MM

This story was updated on July 31 to include a Fox News rebuttal.

TV One will expand its morning news/talk show offerings from one to three hours with an expanded version of News One Now and the addition of a live talk show, the network said during its upfront presentation Thursday.

The Roland Martin-hosted News One Now will expand from one hour to two hours beginning in the third quarter, said network officials. The series will also be renamed Black America Today to better reflect the show’s focus on news and issues that affect the African-American community, Martin told Multichannel News.

Martin -- who told the gathering of press and advertisers that next week on News One Now he would “eulogize” Fox News Channel personality Bill O’Reilly, who earlier this week was let go by the network amid sexual harassment allegations – also said that the News One Now’s new two-hour format will allow the show to provide more in-depth coverage of breaking news and issues.

“There’s so much news that exists out there that we literally can’t fit it into a one hour format,” Martin told Multichannel News. “The extra hour allows us to stretch ourselves to do more, and also allows us to go deeper into some subjects.”

TV One later this year will also add a live, multi-platform, one-hour daily talk show featuring four as yet names female hosts that will focus on issues impacting the everyday lives of African-American women, said D’Angela Proctor, TV One senior vice president of original programming and production.

 In other TV One upfront news:

--The network will expand its Sunday true crime & justice programming block to a Monday nights with the development of several new series, including Two Sides Of The Truth, executively produced by Viola Davis; Evidence of Innocence; Hotlanta; #Murder and Thou Shalt Not.

--TV One will develop several original movies based on R&B music groups Xscape & DeBarge, as well as on the lives of Bobbi Kristina, the daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, and civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

Multicultural entertainment networks are prepping for the biggest entertainment event of the summer: the Democratic and Republican conventions, and their respective presumptive presidential nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

This month, networks such as Fuse, Revolt, BET and TV One will provide both TV and digital coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland (July 18-21) and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (July 25-28).

Providing news coverage through a multicultural lens — especially during an important and unpredictable campaign season — should appeal to the networks’ target viewers despite the channels’ entertainment-programming pedigrees, network executives said.

“I think the landscape for this particular election season is uncharted territory,” Fuse Media CEO Michael Schwimmer said. “We have candidates on both sides that are controversial, and particularly on the Republican side, with regard to the Hispanic community. I don’t think we’ve seen this kind of change and acrimony in a way that so directly effects our audience.”

Fuse will air segments from the convention both on its air and online. They will be reported by correspondents Arlene Santana and James Villalobos, who were chosen by Fuse viewers last month as part of the network’s “Crash the Parties” initiative with nonprofit political organization Voto Latino, Schwimmer said.

Having covered the 2008 and 2012 conventions, Schwimmer added that there is far more interest among young viewers this year than in the previous elections.

“The interest in both candidates, along with the explosion of social media over the past eight years, makes this a better experience for us as an organization and for viewers who will get that content multiple ways,” Schwimmer said.

TV One president and CEO Brad Siegel said the network’s live daily coverage from the convention floors, via morning news program News One Now with Roland Martin, will provide its African-American audience with a more in-depth look at the issues important to them.

The show’s website, newsone.com, will also offer live reports from the conventions.

“Viewers expect us to be covering the most important news of the day, and be able to interpret and ask the questions of the newsmakers regarding how their politics affects African-Americans,” he said. “That’s our job — to ask the questions from a perspective that no one else is asking, and our viewers expect us to represent their point of view, their situations and how their policies affect their lives.”

Coverage of the conventions won’t be limited to what’s happening in the arenas. Revolt TV chief political correspondent Amrit Singh said he plans to complement the network’s convention coverage with reports from outside the proceedings, where major protests are expected.

“The story there is not only what’s happening in the convention halls but very much what’s happening in the streets,” he said.

As part of Revolt’s “Revolt 2 Vote” initiative, the network will feature live segments from the convention floor that will air on the network’s daily Revolt Live show as well as on network website revolt.tv, Singh said. The network will also break into regularly scheduled programming during the conventions to offer live updates and interviews from the convention floors, he added.

“These conventions are really four-day reality shows,” Singh said. “This is really an opportunity to galvanize the attention of our audience.”

Myx Tv general manager Miguel Santos added that a diverse offering of voices and images on television helps to assure that all voters have a chance to have their issues and concerns heard. 

“It’s important for multicultural networks to ensure that their viewers feel like they have a voice and their needs are being addressed,” said Santos, whose network is in process of planning its on-air and online election coverage.

“You’ll hear presidential candidates say ‘We have the African-American, Latino and event the LGBTQ+ vote’ but rarely is there a mention of Asian Americans," he added. "Our viewers need to know that  they can and should demand more attention because their votes matter too.”

Bill O’Reilly’s recent comments on Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor regarding the “Black Lives Matter” movement have spurred a fierce Twitter reaction from Roland Martin, host of TV One’s News One Now. Martin wants to confront O’Reilly on-air regarding the protest movement involving mostly young African-Americans calling for change following several controversial police shootings of unarmed black men.

O’Reilly called the Black Lives Matter movement “a hate group” after a video emerged of some movement protesters in Minnesota chanting that police were “pigs in a blanket” in the aftermath of the shooting death of a Texas sheriff. O’Reilly also said he plans to put the movement “out of business,” and would publicly out any journalist who supports the Black Lives Matter movement.

Since then, Martin said he has unsuccessfully lobbied O’Reilly’s producers to appear on The O’Reilly Factor to debate the popular news/talk host about what he calls misconceptions about the movement. Martin also has made several Twitter posts calling out O’Reilly, as well as CNN’s Don Lemon and other TV news personalities, for “nonsense” they’ve stated regarding Black Lives Matter.

This past week (Sept. 9), Martin upped the ante on Twitter, saying “I Challenge @FoxNews, @oreillyfactor, @megynkelly @TheFive @ TheJuanWilliams to debate me about #Black-LivesMatter facts.”

“When somebody lies and distorts the truth they should be held accountable for it,” Martin told The Wire. “He opened the door by saying if there are any journalists out there who support Black Lives Matter, he’s going to put them on the network and call them out. And I said fine, I’ll raise my hand.

“I just want to correct the record. I don’t believe that people should go on and say things that are factually incorrect — if you disagree with a movement, fine, but you are going to be held accountable if you flat-out lie,” Martin said. “There are things that Bill O’Reilly has said that are simply not true, so we are certainly going to hold his feet to the fire and others as well.”

Fox News did not respond for comment. 

— R. Thomas Umstead

FCC Dish Decision Draws Praise From ‘Porker’ Patrol

Dish Network was featured in the most recent issue of the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) e-newsletter, but it probably would just as soon not have been.

CAGW gave the FCC a shout-out for unanimously denying Dish-affiliated designated entities Northstar Wireless, LLC and SNR Wireless — satellite-TV provider Dish owns 85% of both, through a joint venture — over $3 billion in bidding credits in the agency’s AWS-3 wireless spectrum auction. That means $3 billion more into the U.S. Treasury, which is getting a chunk of the auction proceeds after the funding of FirstNet and some research.

Calling it a victory for taxpayers, CAGW president Tom Schatz said: “The FCC auctions are a valuable method to increase the availability of spectrum, increase innovation, and raise money for taxpayers. The process must meet the highest standards of fairness and integrity.”

It’s no big surprise that the FCC’s decision would make news with CAGW, best known for its “porker” awards for its identification of what it says is government waste. (Dish memorably sent up cable companies as greedy pigs in ads about a decade ago, so turnabout might be fair play.) CAGW teamed up with other taxpayer groups to ask the FCC to deny the credits back in May, saying a grant would come “at the peril of [the FCC’s] already diminishing credibility.” Ouch.

Dish saw it quite differently, suggesting its participation was one of the big reasons the auction raked in so much dough in the first place.

“Our approach to the AWS-3 auction, which followed 20 years of FCC precedent and complied with all legal requirements, was intended to enhance competition — in the auction and in the marketplace long-term,” Dish senior vice president and deputy general counsel Jeff Blum told The Wire.

— John Eggerton

TV One will move its News One Now morning news show to 7 a.m. from 9 a.m. beginning Sept. 14, according to network officials.

The weekday one-hour news program, hosted by Roland Martin, focuses on news and analysis of politics, entertainment, sports, and culture from an explicitly African American perspective. TV One said the show, which has grossed almost 2 million total viewers since its inception in Nov. 2013, hopes to expand the show's potential audience by moving it to the 7 a.m. hour when other news shows such as ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today air. 

“After almost two years on the air as the only live daily news program targeting the African American viewer, we are confident News One Now is ready to take on the traditional morning news crowd,”Martin said in a statement. “In this uber-competitive news landscape, it is imperative we make available to the broadest audience possible the in-depth relevance our unique perspective provides. We know viewers have a multitude of options at 7 a.m. for their first news of the day, and we believe the diversity of our focus and continual coverage of issues of import to the African America community will resonate significantly.”  

TV One will explore the issues surrounding Black America and law enforcement Tuesday as part of a town hall meeting.

The special, State of Emergency: Baltimore and Beyond A News One Now Town Hall Meeting will be hosted by News One Now Host Roland Martin will feature a panel of newsmakers, politicians, law enforcement officers and civil rights activists discussing the impact of officer-involved deaths in Baltimore, Cleveland, Ferguson, New York and South Carolina on the relationship between the black community and police.

"News One Now has been a consistent platform for exploring issues important to African Americans, including the crises in Ferguson, New York, and most recently Baltimore," said Martin in a statement. "With this primetime special, we aim to broaden the national discussion on race in America, especially as it relates to the underlying tensions between police and the Black community."