"Meet the Press" is America's most-watched and No. 1 Sunday morning public affairs broadcast. Acclaimed by conservatives and liberals, newsmakers and television critics, "Meet the Press" consistently makes Monday morning headlines and has become the most quoted television program in the world. Tim Russert, NBC News' senior vice president and Washington bureau chief, has moderated this venerable television institution since December 8, 1991.

Established as a half-hour program, "Meet the Press" expanded to one hour on September 20, 1992. The current format consists of one to three interview segments featuring guests and newsmakers of national and international importance, often followed by today's leading journalists and NBC News' political correspondents engaging in a roundtable discussion.

"Meet the Press" is the longest-running program on network television, having made its NBC-TV debut on November 6, 1947. It premiered two years earlier as a radio program with Lawrence E. Spivak, one of the pioneers in broadcasting, as producer and regular panelist. (He retired from the program 30 years later, in November 1975.) With a landmark edition on February 2, 1997, "Meet the Press" continued its tradition of broadcast leadership by becoming the first network-television program to broadcast live in digital high-definition.

"Meet the Press" originates from the NBC Studios in Washington, D.C. When events dictate, however, the program travels to the scenes of major news events. These locales have included East Berlin, the Atlanta Olympics, and the sites of presidential primaries, Democratic and Republican national conventions and international summit meetings, including the Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations in Paris, the United States-Soviet summit in Malta, the Helsinki summit and the Clinton-Yeltsin summit in Vancouver.

Betsy Fischer is the executive producer and Michelle Jaconi and Erin Fogarty are the producers.